


Pixie Spy

by mochegato



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Badass Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Badass Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Damian Wayne is a Gremlin, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Hot Mess Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jasonette, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Is So Done, Mother Hen John Constantine, Protective Jason Todd, The Batfamily Has Issues, Undercover Missions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:08:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 80,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26288539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mochegato/pseuds/mochegato
Summary: Marinette attends the Wayne Gala in order to spy on the Waynes so Constantine can steal some important information the Miraculous Team need from Bruce Wayne.  Things do not go as planned and now the Batfamily know about Paris (against the Miraculous Team's wishes) and the Miraculous Team know the Batfamily's identities (against their wishes), but all of it is according to Constantine's wishes.  Now the two groups need to figure out how to co-exist... or not, in order to take down Hawkmoth.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste & Chloé Bourgeois & Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng & Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Batfamily Members, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Batfamily Members & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd
Comments: 197
Kudos: 686





	1. To Go Unnoticed... And Fail

Why?!? Why was she doing this again? Oh right, because John Constantine promised to give her some help with a particularly difficult part of the Grimoire if she did. And he needed the information he was currently obtaining in order to give said help. That is how she ended up with an invitation, still not sure how Constantine pulled _that_ off, to the most exclusive event of the year, the Wayne Gala. 

Plus, Adrien was kind of right, ordinarily it would be a great opportunity to showcase her designs. The problem was on its surface, her dress wasn't one of her best works. The black dress had a high, cowl neckline in front and in back, adding a bit of drama and a small homage to the local heroes, vigilantes she silently corrected herself. The high neckline also offset the incredibly short bubble skirt, making her legs look longer than the Nile. Despite being a bit uncomfortable showing that much leg, it was necessary for this particular design and if she could actually feel like she had long legs for once, she was willing to deal with the discomfort. She also added a glittery belt to show her shape and add some bling, which seemed like something the people at this particular event would value. It was functional, not fashionable. Not that it was ugly, just that it was designed to be passable, enough to fit in but not enough to get noticed.

She fidgeted slightly as she stood in the entryway trying to get past the people piling up trying to not so discretely pay homage to the king. That king being Bruce Wayne. From her research, he actually did seem like he was a good guy. The list of charities he started or contributed to was longer than she was tall. She scowled at the voice in the back of her head that sounded suspiciously like Adrien's saying that wasn't much. Adrien, who got out of coming tonight because the mission was to observe the Waynes _unnoticed_ and _Adrien Agreste_ would get a bit too much attention, that cat bastard.

Despite the laundry list of charity work, Marinette was still suspicious of Wayne. First of all, he was rich, filthy rich. Anyone that rich had to have some dark and twisted secrets they were hiding. He wouldn’t be the first rich person to hide their illicit activities behind a veil of charity work. Second, he _chose_ to live in Gotham, the most crime-riddled city in the world. And that is just the reported crime. A great deal of the crime never got reported to or investigated by the police, whether through corruption or exhaustion. The kind of place a rich person could be confident they would get away with literal murder.

But mostly, it was Constantine that made her suspicious of Bruce Wayne. Not that Constantine had ever said anything negative about him, well nothing more than calling him a pain in the ass, but that was really not so much an insult as a compliment coming from Constantine. But, Wayne had information Constantine needed to help them with the Grimoire and Constantine refused to say how Wayne had gotten that information. How and why would a playboy billionaire have that information? There is absolutely no reason someone outside of the hero/villain/magic community would have that information. And, if he was such a good guy, why would Constantine need to go to these lengths to get it without Wayne’s knowledge? Unless it was related to one of his illicit secrets.

Her eyes darted around the room taking in its grandeur, muttering to herself about how ostentatious it all was. Normally, she would be completely mesmerized by the grandeur and pomp of the scene. The room was decorated to perfection. Everything was absolutely exquisite. However, she was too anxious and wary to enjoy it. So instead of being inspired, each gorgeous detail grated on her. She reached up to tug on her hair before remembering her hair had been pulled up into an elegant twist held in place with a single silver pin. With her normal anxiety relief method unavailable, she instead shifted nervously from foot to foot while she scanned the room trying to catch site of the rest of the Waynes, gently tightening and loosening her grip on her purse, trying not to crush Tikki.

She was so lost in her anxiety she didn't notice the dark haired man walking behind her take notice of her and stop. He stood behind her with a nonchalance that didn’t seem to fit a man his size. He watched her fidget and muttering to herself about “damn rich people” with a smile on his face.

“You don't seem excited to be here” he said quietly.

She turned around with wide eyes, shocked that someone had heard her. Whatever she was expecting to see it was not what she saw in front of her. The man towered over her. Even in her ridiculously, dangerously high heels, Chloe insisted, her head didn’t even come up to his chin. He was also extremely handsome, with chiseled features and the most gorgeous blue eyes she had ever seen. Those eyes were going to be a problem. They were clear and kind and roguish and hypnotizing. His black hair with a shock of white was slightly tousled giving the impression of a rouge trying to look sophisticated. Was it inappropriate to imagine running her hand through his hair and along his sharp jawline? Yeah, probably not appropriate and likely not welcome. Clean up your thoughts, girl! Great, now Alya was in her head scolding her. No, that’s not right, because that would definitely not be Alya’s advice. 

He was grinning at her with an impish look in his eyes. “What? Not impressed with the ‘we care about whatever the point of this gala is, but we’re not hobos so let’s not skimp on the luxury for us’ décor? Or maybe it is the illustrious, soul sucking, benefactors of Gotham that have set you on edge.” The smile he shot her was guarded and critical. She chuckled lightly and looked away. “You have good judgement and a good reason to be suspicious. But you made it to The event of the season, so you must have done something right… or wrong.”

She hummed and looked away. “Have you ever had one of those days where everything went wrong and now you don't know how you got where you are or why you are there?”

“I’m familiar with the feeling,” he nodded.

“That's my life. All of it. Every single fucking day. This one included."

He barked out a laugh and looked at her again appraising her. “Well aren’t you a ray of sunshine. I think I like you. You might just make this torture session more bearable. See you around,” he chuckled as he walked away.

Marinette watched the man’s retreating back. The night was already going better than she thought it would. But the plan for the night wasn’t to find a date it was to act as a scout and keep tabs on the… enemy? For all intents and purposes, that is what the Waynes were tonight, right? They had information that she needed, that Paris needed, and they apparently weren’t going to part with it willingly, so they were the enemy. No, enemy sounded too harsh she chided herself. Opposition? Yes, they were the opposition. That sounded much less hostile, more like a game… a game where people’s lives were on the line. You know, just for fun, no pressure.

She found a spot against a wall she could use. It was slightly raised but not well lit so it wouldn’t draw attention to her. From her spot she could finally see the family. It was very thoughtful of them to group together like that. She could see the little one, stiff and military-like posture, glowering at the people around him. He was standing as far away from the rest of the people there as he could without actually leaving the room. Much closer to the dancefloor, she could see the middle boy talking to a few business men. They all had fake smiles plastered on their faces as they made seemingly insignificant small talk. She did not envy him that experience. Between the two and to the side was the oldest son. He was chatting up some business person’s daughter, leaning in a lot closer than etiquette would dictate. Just the father then… there he was still not too far from the door talking to a dark haired woman. He had his arm around her waist as she leaned into him. She must be the girlfriend then. Mari made a note that she should probably pay attention to where she was as well. Fortunately, the spot she had chosen gave her a great vantage point. Unfortunately, her observation spot wasn’t as unnoticed as she had hoped.

<><><><><>

Jason made his way over to the bar and ordered a beer. He still hadn’t spoken to his family to let them know he was there and he definitely needed a drink before he approached them. Why the fuck was he here again? Fucking Batman. 

Fresh glass of beer in hand, he made his way over to his brothers, refusing to acknowledge any of the partygoers along the way. He watched as his brothers took note of his approach and excused themselves from their conversation partners. Dick didn’t look too happy to turn away from the latest interest, smiling at her and giving her reassurances before sending her away. Tim looked less happy to have to turn away from the men he was talking with. He should be thanking Jason really. He was giving him an out from having to deal with them and their god awful personalities and fashion. Seriously, who told that guy that tie was okay. Even the Riddler would think that tie was obnoxious.

“Okay, I’m here,” Jason said taking a large swig of his drink. “How long before I can ditch this bottomless pit of misery?”

“Woah, slow down there. You’re going to get drunk before the announcement.” Dick cautioned him.

“Do you want me here or do you want me sober? You’re going to have to choose one. They’re mutually exclusive, Dickweed.”

“Come on Jaybird, we all have to be here. None of the rest of us are getting drunk.”

“That’s just because I’m smarter than you guys are,” he said tipping his glass to Tim who had scoffed at the suggestion and took another drink. “There is no reason we all have to be here. We shouldn’t all have to suffer. And officially, I’m not even a member of this hellscape of a family anymore so I really shouldn’t have to be here.”

“If The Disappointment gets to leave, so do I. Someone should be patrolling tonight instead of all of us wasting our time entertaining these harpies. And if one more person tries to touch me on my head I’m going to break a hand.”

“Stop it! Nobody is leaving, Damian. We’re in this together. And Jason, if anyone got to go home it wouldn’t be you. You are the reason we all have to be here in the first place; so we can ALL show our support when we officially announce that you are part of this ‘hellscape of a family’ again. So enjoy it,” he said with a cutting smile.

“Not everyone enjoys getting groped by the gold-digging, trust fund whores. I’ve found a way to cope. It’s called alcohol. Now if you’ll excuse me,” he downed the drink in his hand, “my drink is empty. I’m going to go find another.”

“At least try not to interact with anyone. We don’t want to piss anyone off tonight. And I don’t want to have to fix your messes.”

“Way ahead of you, Replacement.” Jason turned and walked away before Dick could reprimand him again. He needed to get away. He could only handle his family in small does, very small doses, miniscule amounts, and he had already surpassed that limit. 

He grabbed two more drinks off of a passing waiter’s tray and looked for the Sunshine Girl. He scanned the room sipping the champagne, trying not to make eye contact with anyone in the room. His size and demeanor was usually enough to keep people away but making eye contact made people think he was open to talking. He was not. He had no interest in making nice with Gotham’s elite. He wanted to get this night over with, with as little pain as possible. 

He finally spotted her off to the side of the room speaking with the obnoxious tie guy. Jason watched as the man slid his hand up the side of her leg starting to move under her skirt. Jason started to make his way over to them until he saw her move closer to the man. She was close enough to whisper seductively into his ear now. Ah, not uninvited then. Maybe he had misread her. Well there goes his hope of this party not sucking balls. He started to turn away but noticed a pained expression on the man’s face. He turned back to reexamine the scene. She was holding the man’s hand at an unnatural angle. It was a hold he’d used a few times himself, it was discrete but extremely effective, causing intense pain with a small movement. He knew if she moved her hand just a few more centimeters, she could easily break his wrist.

She let go with a viscous look pushing him away from her as she did. The man shook his hand and scowled at her. He started back toward her and Jason took off running, not pausing to apologize to the people he bumped into along the way. Before he could get to her, she had already taken care of it. She squared her shoulders and glared at the man, making it clear that she could and would continue with her actions if he persisted. When she moved her hand ever so slightly, just enough so he could see it and remember what she had done, the man turned away and smiled at the people who had been standing behind him as though nothing had happened. Jason chuckled to himself watching her move away from the man. She was definitely going to make this night more bearable.

“Looks like you don’t need me around for protection. Although I did bring a drink so maybe I can earn my keep that way,” he said handing her one of the glasses in his hand. “That was extremely impressive. How did you lean to handle yourself like that?” 

She accepted the glass and shrugged. “You live in Paris long enough you pick up a few things.”

“That isn’t something you just ‘pick up’. That’s experience.”

“And that is exactly what you get when you have a supervillain terrorizing your streets and thoughts for 5 years; experience. And how do _you_ know about that move? Rich boy secretly a vigilante?” She raised an eyebrow at him giving him a daring smile and pretending to take a drink from the glass. She was on a mission and she didn’t know him. She wasn’t about to actually drink anything a stranger gave her, let alone get drunk.

“You don’t grow up in Gotham without learning how to take down someone trying to cop a feel. And what do you mean about a supervillain in Paris?” he asked taking a step closer to her, concern edging into his stare.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not relevant for tonight.” She said taking a step away and scanning the room again to locate the Waynes.

He looked at her for a few moments taking her in, not just her appearance but how she held herself. She stood with confidence and nonchalance. She wasn’t acting coy, she wasn’t baiting him to ask her more questions, she was serious. There was some kind of supervillain running around Paris that they had no idea about. Well that piqued his interest. He wanted to find out more about that and just his luck, the only person around who knew about it was the gorgeous and badass Sunshine Child in front of him. Guess he’ll just have to suffer and spend more time talking to her. The things he does for Gotham, he smirked to himself. “I’m Jason,” he said putting his hand out for her to shake.

She looked at his hand before hesitantly taking it. His hand absolutely engulfed hers. “Nice to meet you Jason,” she said looking toward the dancefloor. She had last seen the Waynes near the dancefloor and they couldn’t have gotten far, right? They were likely to be near it.

Misinterpreting her focus he asked, “Wanna dance?” placing down his now empty glass.

She needed a better vantage point to locate the Waynes and even if they weren’t on the dancefloor anymore, the dancefloor would be the ideal place get an unobstructed, overall view of the room. She could see the entire room from the dancefloor. She just had to scope it out discretely so Jason didn’t get suspicious. “Sure,” she said smiling at him and accepting the hand he had offered her.

He guided her out onto the dancefloor. Jason noticed a little girl standing nervously next to the dancefloor looking at a group of kids nearby. “Hold on just a second,” he said dropping her hand to kneel down next to the little girl. “Hey, I just wanted to say what a beautiful dress you have. I wish you had a smile to match. Anything wrong, kid?” he asked gently. The little girl gave him a nervous smile.

“Thanks. My Mom said I could pick out a dress and I chose this one. But Mom says it looks silly. It’s too fluffy and gets in everyone’s way.”

At that Marinette kneeled down next to her as well. “Oh. Well, let me fill you in on a little secret. I’m a fashion designer and I can tell you there is nothing wrong with fluffy. You did a great job picking it out. It is perfect for you. I couldn’t design anything better. I wish I looked as confident and effortlessly beautiful as you do. ”

The smile the little girl gave her was genuine this time. “You really like it?”

“I do,” Marinette responded. 

“I do, too. I’m not a fashion designer, but I still think you look good, kid. And if anyone tells you they don’t like it, scr… I mean, forget them. Who cares what they think. A fashion designer and a delinquent think it looks amazing. Don’t let someone else tell you what you like.” Jason added. The little girl beamed at both of them and bounded off to join the kids with much more confidence.

Marinette watched him as he watched the kid play with her friends making raucous noise as they played, a grin on his face until he saw some parents come to reprimand their kids for being so noisy. So, rich boy has a heart and is really protective of kids. Well that wasn’t going to help Marinette focus solely on the mission. “That was incredibly nice of you. That’s not advice I would have expected from someone attending a party like this.” Marinette said taking Jason’s outstretched hand again.

“Just because we’re miserable here doesn’t mean she should be, too. Kids should be happy. It’s ridiculous to bring a kid to a party if you aren’t going to let them be a kid. Adults in Gotham expect too much of their kids. They treat them like props instead of kids, tools to help them achieve a goal.” He said voice getting gruff as he spoke. He looked back at her and shook his head as if to clear his head of his thoughts. He smiled at her instead and took her waist with his free hand to start dancing with her.

“You know, I noticed you never did give me your name.”

She looked into his eyes for a just a moment before she looked back to the dancefloor, “You know, I noticed that too.”

“Hmmm. Secretive. No name but a fashion designer from Paris,” he said. Marinette paled slightly refusing to look back at him. He was paying attention to her and noticing details. She hadn’t expected that from this crowd. She was going to have to be more careful about what she said. ‘Not get noticed’ played over and over in her head. She was supposed to slip in and out with nobody remembering her. She might have blown the mission already. But, was she ready to walk away from those blue eyes? Surely, talking with him couldn’t do any harm, right? “So, did you design the dress you’re wearing?”

She was brought back to reality with a jolt. “Yes. Not… not my best work, but it fit the uh, occasion,” she stuttered out.

“Was the occasion to look stunning? Because you do.” He grinned smugly as she blushed heavily under his praise. This was fun. This was his new mission for the night; to see how many times he could make her blush. “Still not going to tell me your name, huh?”

She looked back at him before dropping her eyes again. Stupid mission. If it were just her here for herself, she could stay here dancing with Jason and gazing into his eyes for the rest of the night, and tomorrow, and the day after for that matter. But she wasn’t here for herself. She was here for a reason and that reason demanded she be anonymous and keep track of the Waynes.

She scanned the floor again and finally spotted the Waynes, confirming they were all there. Nobody had snuck off. They really liked sticking around each other didn’t they?

“No, it takes more than a pretty line from a pretty boy to get my name” she said looking back to Jason and plastering on a fake smile. “I don’t need any rich boys remembering me after this is over. Tomorrow I’ll go back to my real life and it will be like none of this ever happened. I can report that I came, I danced, and I even smiled a few times, then never speak of it again.”

“Friends or family forced you to come because they thought you needed some excitement in your life, Pixie Pop?”

“Something like that… Pixie Pop?”

“You won’t tell me your name and I need to call you something. You’re little and mischievous and can handle yourself… Pixie Pop. Honestly, you’re lucky I didn’t go with Odysseus. Also, you think I’m pretty?” He grinned down at her.

She rolled her eyes but smiled anyway, cheeks flushing slightly. “I think that would have made you Polyphemus, which you certainly have the size for,” she grinned up at him. “Anyway, that’s why I’m here. How about you?”

“Oh, my family thinks I have enough fun already. I’m here because if they have to suffer, so do I. And all to bolster the name of the illustrious Bruce Wayne.”

Marinette examined his face as he stared toward where she last seen Bruce Wayne. He looked annoyed and frustrated. This was a side of Mr. Wayne she had not heard about in her research, a side that frustrated native Gothamites. A bit more information could be helpful for her to figure out what role he played in the Grimoire information Constantine was gathering, figure out whether or not he was a threat. “Not a fan?” she asked delicately.

He looked back at her examining her face for any malice. “Depends on the day.”

She hummed in response. “What can you tell me about Bruce Wayne?” she finally asked.

“Why do you want to know?” he responded suspiciously. Most people looking for more information wanted it as a weapon. Bruce might not be his favorite person, he might actually hate him right now, but he wasn’t going to help someone take him down unless it was him.

She shrugged, “everything I’ve seen shows an exemplary record for him. You don’t seem to be a fan though and you’ve grown up in Gotham so you would have some good insights. So, I’m wondering what your take on him is. What he’s done to draw your ire.”

Jason nodded slightly seeming to mull over what she said. “He does good things. He helps a lot of charities. He honestly does care about the city and the people and about making their lives better. His parenting skills could use some work though. He could show his sons that he actually cares about them as more than tools, you know, whether they live or died…” he furrowed his brows and looked away for a few seconds before he schooled his expression. His eyes got a wicked gleam to them and he leaned towards her to whisper conspiratorially “… and I hear he’s sleeping with Batman.”

Mari looks at him surprised. “Huh, I guess he has a type then, supermodels, superheroes…”

“Supervillains…” Jason says under her breath looking back at Bruce and his date.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he covered quickly, but the damage had already been done. She had started thinking about Bruce’s involvement with the super community. If he was sleeping with superheroes and supervillains, that meant he was part of the same circles as Constantine… and Constantine liked dating in the super community. Could Bruce Wayne be in the super community? That would explain why he had information pertaining to the Grimoire. And she might need to revisit exactly _how_ Constantine knew Bruce Wayne.

“Are you okay? I didn’t break you, did I?” he asked cautiously.

“Yeah, fine I could just maybe use some uh, water?” she gave an awkward smile.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, please?” She just needed a bit of space to think.

Jason left to grab a glass of water and turned back to her. She watched Bruce with her head crooked to the side. He saw her finger discretely swiping to the right a few times as she stared intently at Bruce. After a few times her finger swiped left instead and head straightened. She looked around to the other members of the family as if she was counting, confirming something in her head.

Marinette’s eyes widened as she suddenly realized why Bruce Wayne could have information they needed and why Constantine needed her to keep an eye on the Waynes. Shit. Shit shit shit shit. Shitshitshitshitshitshit. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. She turned away quickly. This could not be happening. This. Could. Not. Be. Happening. She did NOT help him break into the BATCAVE while she kept tabs on BATMAN.

And if Constantine was trying desperately to avoid him, like he did all his exes…That little…

Jason had no idea what happened but as he got closer to his Pixie he could hear her muttering under her breath in French. His French was a bit rusty so even the pieces he could pick up were scarce and nonsensical. Something about maybe “lying” and “Roast Beef” and “bat” and “shark” and “fucking”. He couldn’t be positive about any of the words except two; “fucking” and “bat” those he was pretty familiar with. Not to brag but he could swear like a sailor in at least 7 languages. And “bat”, he knew that word in a few more languages for obvious reasons.

She was abruptly moving and ran right into him before she could take notice of her surroundings. She looked at Jason with wide eyes, reexamining the man she had spent the evening speaking and dancing with. Suddenly, everything clicking into place. There was one more hero she hadn’t accounted for, Red Hood, who while he hid his face behind a mask, just so happened to have the same towering build as Jason. But Bruce Wayne didn’t have any more kids, right? And if the other vigilantes were his sons, Red Hood should be too, right? He just had the three boys and the two girls who were out of town. That was it. He had another son, but that son had died. What was his name… She gasped loudly, “Oh God! You’re Jason,” she exclaimed out loud. 

“Yeah?” He said confused. They’d been over this before.

“You’re Jason Todd,” she said looking down and taking slow breaths. “You’re Bruce Wayne’s son.”

He looked at her startled. She put that together quicker than he was expecting especially since she didn’t seem to know much about the family. “For what it’s worth, I don’t feel like his son most of the time,” he tried to joke. “Sorry for not telling you before. I don’t like talking about being in the family, or being in the family at all, actually.” He winced looking at her wide eyes.

“I wasn’t supposed to get noticed by the Waynes. Shit!”

“Then you shouldn’t have worn that dress… or that face… or that smile, Pixie.” He said grinning suavely. 

She examined him for a few seconds, emotions flittering across her face almost too quickly to identify them. Confusion, bashful, flattered, hopeful, guilt, pain, melancholy. 

“I have to go.” She finally spoke up.

“Wait. What?”

“I… I have to go”

“Wait, is it… you have to go because I’m Wayne’s son?”

“No, I… shit. Putain de bâtard.” Yep, that one he understood too. Wait... “Me?” He asked pointing to himself.

“No, not you… Not because you’re a Wayne, well kind of because you’re a Wayne. It’s…” she faltered for a few seconds then muttered under her breath again “Je vais tuer cette putain de mère.”

“Wait, who is the mother fucker you’re talking about? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m just going to kill a bitch when I get home.”

“Okay… Okay, first, that is a lot more swearing than I thought you were capable of and I’m extremely impressed… and turned on,” he chuckled as she rolled her eyes at him and mumbled under her breath “you should have heard what was going on in my head”. He raised his eyebrows at her suggestion. “Okay, you’re making it really hard not to make out with you right now.” He watched proudly as her cheeks suddenly blazed red at his comment. Another point for him tonight.

“Second, if you’re just worried about Bruce finding out you were here, it never happened. I never saw you. You were never here,” he assured her. Instead of calming her she seemed more panicked, eyes darting from the door to him. This seemed like more than just not wanting to get noticed. She was into something and didn’t want to be. “Or, if you’re in trouble, I can help. You just need to tell me what is going on. You don’t seem like you would willingly work with someone out to hurt others, so whatever it is, I’m sure you aren’t willingly doing it. If it is something bad. I just really have no idea what is going on right now and I would like you to tell me.” He continued earnestly, looking her in her eyes to make sure she understood how deathly serious he was about it. If she needed help, he WOULD help her. Even if he didn’t like her, which he really did, he was going to help put that smile back on her face.

She looked at him for another few moments opening her mouth slightly to say something then seemed to think better of it and closed it again. She narrowed her eyes and looked away scanning the room as she thought about what to say and do next. She seemed to come to a conclusion as she turned back to him and set her feet firmly on the ground.

“I never told you why I was here, did I?” Even before he shook his head she continued. “I’m here to keep an eye on the Waynes. On you, apparently. Didn’t know you were back from the dead though, so I wasn’t looking out for you. Congratulations on that, by the way, you know, on the whole not being dead thing. That’s really amazing. I’m glad you can be around to enjoy life and laugh and be sarcastic and look at me with those eyes and look like that in a suit… probably even better out of it.” She muttered the last part under her breath.

“I’d love to see you out of that dress, too.” He smiled smugly at her.

She huffed out a breath, cheeks reddening again, “Yeah, not happening. I’m burning this dress as soon as I get out of here.”

“I can help you with that, too. I like setting fires. Two birds, one pyrotechnic.” He preened for a moment enjoying the flirting. Wait, less flirting, more focusing back on the more important part of her earlier speech.

“Wait, why are you keeping an eye on us?” he asked apprehensively.

“So I could warn my… associate if any of you left. So he could have plenty of time to… what is the best way to say this…” she looked up to the ceiling and took a deep steadying breath thinking about the words she wanted to use. None of this was part of the plan. “…so he could have plenty of time to evacuate your… lair? No, lair makes you sound like villains… your illicit… cavern of, actually I don’t know if it is a cavern… and it isn’t really illicit, is it? Well, actually I guess it kind of is, but that still makes it sound like you’re a villain…your underground… no, I don’t even know if it is underground… to evacuate your… uh… secret… base of… um, operations?”

“My what?” Jason demanded now more than a little concerned. “Who are you?”

“Nobody. Absolutely nobody of consequence. And nobody who should be here right now.” She turned to walk away before Jason stopped her.

“No. You don’t get to say something like that then try to slink away like nothing happened. Come on, we’re going to go talk to some people,” he said grabbing her arm a bit harder than strictly necessary and dragging her towards his brothers and Bruce. She definitely figured out who they all were or at least who Bruce was and that they knew too, which put her in danger, and she was working with someone to break into the Batcave, which put them all in danger. Everything about this situation was dangerous and bad and they needed to talk to the family to figure out the best next steps.

Marinette dug her heels into the ground pulling against him, a really bad idea considering how high her heels were. Instead of stopping him she stumbled into his chest allowing him the opportunity to wrap his arms around her, “I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said squirming to get out of his embrace. “This is between you guys. I have neither the desire nor the interest to get involved in this little lover’s spat. I have more important things to be doing right now. Things that asshole was supposed to be doing instead of pulling practical jokes.”

“Jokes? What do you mean jokes? What the fuck is going on?” He looked at her again. She wasn’t afraid, she wasn’t gloating, she wasn’t even nervous. She was annoyed verging on enraged. 

“Nothing you need to worry about, _Red_.” She threw in the moniker at him to get him to back down. She knew how important secret identities were, and how finding out someone knew yours could throw you off your game. She felt a bit of guilt as she used that knowledge against him but this was no longer fun. Now this was infuriating. John was playing games with his former lover, or current lover, whatever Bruce was to him, instead of just helping. He was taking time she didn’t want to spend, time the people of Paris should not have to wait. They had spent weeks planning this when he could have just walked in and asked for the information. They had wasted so much time.

“I. Do. Not. Have. Time. For. This. This is not a joke. This is not some gag for you overgrown children to play at,” she said hitting her finger into his chest with each word. “I have people in need relying on me. I have children counting on me. Parents counting on me. Single people, who also deserve to live just as much as everyone else, counting on me and all suffering while they wait. I. Am. Done. And I am leaving”

Jason listened to her shocked. Something was happening and he had absolutely no idea what, but somehow they were involved. He hated not knowing what was going on. Apparently children were suffering because of all of this and he didn’t know why. But, he was going to figure it out. She was right. They did not have time for this. Whatever was going on, they were going to help. He turned away loosening his grip on her waist to just laying his arm on her instead of encircling her. He touched his hand to his ear to activate the com hidden inside, “Tim, can you check the security video for the uh… our base of operations?”

It appeared that Tim was giving Jason some resistance because Jason turned away even further and started yell whispering threats into the air. He was trying to be as discrete as possible in the crowded room, which normally wouldn’t be such a concern but there was a group of dancers headed their way, just leaving the dance floor after the song ended. Marinette took advantage of his distraction and the sudden cover to twist away from him and slip into the crowd.

Jason called after her and tried to grasp her arm but missed her. He searched for her but the crowd was too thick, having had to bottleneck to get past the tables surrounding the dance floor. He scanned the crowd for her twisted hair or the black dress, but couldn’t see her in the group. She had effectively disappeared, but if she went into the crowd, she would have to come out and cross the dancefloor in order to leave. He could just wait for her on the other side of the group and keep an eye on the dancefloor. He moved to go around the table, but that side was just as crowded so he did the only rational, discrete thing he could in the situation, he slid across the top of the table landing on the dancefloor and waited to grab her there, but she never came out.

<><><><><>

Marinette had a habit of catastrophizing. She knew this. Everyone who knew her knew this. She thought of all of the worst case scenarios and tried to plan for them. Generally, it was a wasted effort that did little more than stress her out and annoy her teammates. Today, however, today it paid off. She had anticipated having to make a quick escape and once she decided it was time to go, she put her escape plan into action. Freeing herself from Jason, she pulled off her belt before even getting to the crowd. As she entered the crowd of people, she pulled out her hair pin, letting her hair fall down. She didn’t even have to hunch down much at all to disappear into the crowd as she weaved her way through them. One advantage to being short. She ran her left hand through her hair tousling it so her long raven hair cascaded around her shoulders. With her right hand, she yanked at the cowl neckline of her dress, allowing the fabric overlay to drop forming a floor length skirt, revealing the bodice of her now red Harlow inspired dress that had been hidden underneath. Her new dress hugged her body until it reached her hips then fell freely. 

Finally, she reached into her red purse, removed her phone, the cookie for Tikki, and Kaalki’s glasses, nodded to Tikki, turned her purse inside out revealing a now black purse with red detailing, and returned her phone, glasses, cookie, hairpin, and belt into it, leaving plenty of room for Tikki. The entire change took all of 10 seconds. By the time she would walk out of the crowd, she would be completely unrecognizable, at least by anyone who didn’t already know her. Unless that is, if they were looking for someone moving against the tide of people. That would be a dead giveaway. So instead, she pivoted and moved with the crowd instead of against it, parting with them after a few tables and moving laterally toward the exit.

Marinette made her way to the exit quickly, but not quickly enough to draw attention to herself. She needed to get to Constantine before the “bat family”, as her research had called them, got to him. They had reasons for keeping other superheroes out of Paris and she had no interest in having that particular awkward and slightly guilt laden (stupid gorgeous blue eyes she wanted to get lost in) conversation with them. Especially when she was this utterly livid with Constantine, which was another reason she was rushing. She needed to get to him so she could beat the asshole out of him. Oh, she was going to make him pay for this, and not in a way he would enjoy. 

She was angry and frustrated and guilty and grieved. She knew Jason didn’t deserve for her to snap at him like she had but she had been too frustrated to hold back and he was part of the problem. She had been having fun with Jason. She had been enjoying bantering with him and looking into his eyes. She had really, really been enjoying having him look at her like she was the most interesting thing in Gotham and having him hold her closer than he had to while they danced. And now it was gone. She was a hero and he was a vigilante so he had to be kept at a distance. A 3,670 mile distance to be precise, well approximate. 

She was just about to cross through the exit when a voice stopped her.

“Hey,” a woman with short black hair and green eyes called out to her. Marinette slowed down weighing the risk of just blowing her off vs the risk of stopping. She decided ignoring her might lead to the woman calling after her, which would bring unwanted attention, which she wanted to avoid. Stopping seemed the safer answer. As long as she didn’t look back at the gala or do anything else that might incriminate herself, she would be able to get away without any awkward conversations or fights.

“Yes” she answered with a strained smile.

“I saw that little quick change back there,” the woman responded. Marinette’s eyes widened in panic. Before anxiety could start going over all the worst case scenarios her mind could come up with, she was already in the midst of one of them in real life she really didn’t need to start thinking of worse things to add to it, the woman continued, nonchalantly scanning the people at the gala, “don’t worry, I’m not going to out you. I just might have occasion to use a quick change myself from time to time, so I was hoping you might share where you got your dress.” She shot Marinette a wicked smile. “Just because you’re hustling doesn’t mean you can’t look killer doing it.”

Marinette relaxed minutely and gave her a small smile, “it’s called MDC Designs. She’s online. What’s your name so she’ll know who to look out for?”

“Thanks kitten. I appreciate it.” She said never looking back at Marinette. “Selina. Selina Kyle. I’d say nice to meet you, but we never met, did we?”

Marinette smiled to herself as she walked out the door. Maybe the night wasn’t a total loss. Hopefully, Constantine got the information they needed, she’ll get to punch his smug face as soon as she sees him, and she’ll get a new client. Guess Adrien was right about showcasing her design after all. He must never know. Not such a bad night at all.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190076500@N06/50305376848/in/dateposted-public/)


	2. A Glare like Batman's

Jason waited on the dancefloor anxiously watching the crowd of people who had just left, ready to pounce on the Sunshine Girl once she exposed herself by exiting the safety of the crowd. But he hadn’t seen her exit yet. The crowd had now thinned out enough that he could make out everyone that was still in the group. She wasn’t one of them. The tablecloths that decorated all the tables did not go all the way to the floor, allowing him to see under the tables. She wasn’t hiding there either. There was no sign of her. She was impossibly gone.

He was so focused on his search, he didn’t notice the wary looks of the people around him watching him as though he might lash out at them at any moment and he wouldn’t have been able to care less even if he had noticed. He didn’t have a single fuck to spare about their opinions. He needed to find Sunshine and figure out what the fuck was going on and how he could help. 

He felt a weight on his shoulder and spun quickly grabbing the hand, ready to defend himself against whatever it was. He relaxed slightly when he saw Dick’s surprised and concerned eyes on him, hands held up in a placating gesture, “Hey, it’s just me Jaybird. What’s going on? A rogue?” he asked discretely, stepping closer and lowering his voice so nobody else could hear.

Jason’s eyes returned to the crowd, desperately seeking any sign of her, “No… at least I don’t think so. Do you see a beautiful, short woman with black hair and a short black dress?” She couldn’t have just disappeared. She had to have gone somewhere, but he had been watching not just the dancefloor but the exits as well. There was no way he could have missed her. She wasn’t someone you could miss. She wasn’t there and she hadn’t left. Where the fuck was she? 

Dick watched Jason cautiously before glancing around the room again. He was getting concerned about Jason. He wanted to write it off as a drunken fascination with a girl who walked away or an attempt to disrupt the night, but that wasn’t it. Drunk Jason was belligerent, well more belligerent than usual, not paranoid and possessive. Disruptive Jason never bothered to hide his glee at the disruption. This was something else. 

Dick cast a wary eye back into the crowd looking for the girl Jason described. “I don’t see anyone like that,” he said shaking his head and returning his gaze back to Jason. He didn’t know what was going on, but clearly that girl was important to whatever it was. They should have known better than to think the night would go smoothly. He had naïvely thought the worst he would have to worry about was Jason causing a scene for the hell of it, but this was something more.

“Shit!” Jason exclaimed loudly running his hand through his hair and looking down. He needed to focus on the immediate issues and let the others know their identities had been compromised. They needed to figure out who she was, what she knew, what she was going to do with the information, and just who the fuck got her involved in all of this, track that mother fucker down and kick the shit out of him for getting her involved in the first place. Then figure out what was going on in Paris that had caused so much pain she felt responsible for and kick the shit out of that asshole too.

“Sorry about that everyone. Guess we should have cut the bar off a few drinks ago. Please, continue dancing… and drinking, if you think you can handle it a bit better than him.” Bruce announced loudly with a charming, easy smile for the crowd eliciting a few chuckles from the audience.

“Is this related to what you were asking before?” Tim asked quietly, coming up next to them and scanning the crowd as well, not really sure what he was looking for but searching for anything out of place.

“Yes! We need to go to the safe room,” Jason growled quietly. “ALL of us. Now”

“Did something happen with that girl you can’t find? Did she get taken? Did she take someone else?” Dick asked grimly still watching Jason with concern, gauging the breadth of the developing situation.

“Somebody got taken?” Bruce asked joining the conversation.

“Yeah, we did. Let’s go. Tim, bring up the cameras for back home,” Jason ordered stalking toward the family safe room without bothering to look at anyone. 

“Jason, we were just about to make the announcement. Is it something that can wait?” Bruce asked stepping between Jason and the door to the safe room.

“Gee, I don’t know, B. Do you think someone figuring us out and breaking into our… home base is something important?” Jason asked snidely without breaking stride.

Selina sauntered over slowly just in time to see Bruce’s stoic expression pale slightly, not enough for the other party goers to notice but enough that the family could see the change and change their attitude accordingly. “I’ll do some damage control out here,” she said patting Bruce’s shoulder before pushing him slightly toward the family safe room, a room the family had designated as a safe space in case of emergencies. It was soundproofed, swept for bugs, and was locked to anyone but the family. It was meant to be a place they could change into their suits in case something happened requiring vigilante activity. It also had the added benefit of a place they could send Damian before he actually acted on any of the violent thoughts they knew he was having. 

“And make sure you take Damian with you. He looks ready to cut someone’s hand off,” she said with an amused smile. Damian glared at her as he followed his father to the room. She heard a faint “trollop” as he passed by, making her smile. At this point, she was taking it as a term of endearment from the little terror. If he really wanted to hurt her he would go after her with one of his katanas, like he did with his brothers.

By the time the family made it to the room, Tim had already pulled up the live feed to the Batcave on his phone. He got it connected just in time to see… nothing, absolutely nothing out of place. The cave was empty, the vehicles were parked, the suits and weapons hung up properly, and the computer was resting. Nothing remotely concerning, Tim grumbled to himself. It was bad enough dealing with Jason on patrols but now he had to put up with his bullshit here too. He didn’t want to be here either, none of them did, but at least he wasn’t actively trying to make the situation worse.

Of course it would amount to nothing. If anyone had broken into the Batcave his phone, along with everyone else’s, would have alerted them to the trespasser. He and Barbara had set it up. There was no way around it. Nobody could be in the Batcave without them knowing about it. There was no alarm going off, thus there was no trespasser. This was another of Jason’s paranoid delusions or another way to mess with the family, sabotaging the important night.

As soon as the door to the safe room clicked closed, Bruce turned to Jason with a concerned look, “What is going on, Jason? What do you think got broken into and who figured us out?”

“There was a woman at the party,” he started unsure how much of the encounter he wanted to relate to them. Before he could continue there were groans around the room. He glared at them before continuing louder this time. “She seemed uncomfortable at the gala so I started talking with her.”

“How thoughtful of you. Completely for her own benefit, I’m sure,” Dick rolled his eyes and shook his head. This damn well better not be about Jason trying to get laid. There were far less public ways to accomplish that than this. In fact, Dick had been working on one of those ways when Jason decided to take out an entire table in front of everyone.

“If you assholes are done interrupting,” Jason snapped at them, glowering in frustration. “Out of nowhere, she suddenly stared hard at you guys for a minute then freaked the fuck out. I finally got her to say she was there acting as a scout for _your_ ,” he pointed at Bruce with a scowl, “lover, so he could break into our place.”

“My _what_!” Bruce asked confused, “Selina?”

“What the hell, Jason!” Dick exclaimed. Of course it would be Jason. Of course Jason would end up with someone who was spying on them. Jason seemed to attract it. Even if he wasn’t trying to cause problems, he usually was but even when he wasn’t, they seemed to find him.

“Attempting to bed the enemy, why is that not a surprise, Todd.” Damian scoffed from his seat on the other side of the room.

“Fuck you. I tried to bring her over when she said that, but she got away. She kept ranting about a lover’s quarrel and a joke. Whoever she is working with, she thinks you two know each other and are ‘friendly’, Bruce. And she definitely did NOT know who we were until that point.”

Tim groaned in frustration. They took their eyes off of Jason for just a few minutes and now he had to clean up the mess Jason had created. They were wasting time looking at the batcave instead of looking for this girl. The batcave was a dead end. Jason just didn’t want to admit that he let himself get played by some girl. A girl who he let get away, he might add. “Accident” his ass. Jason didn’t let anyone get away accidentally. And now they all had to play along with this delusion. 

He looked back at the live feed. There was still nothing amiss. He huffed, “She lied to you. There's nothing going on in the cave. Not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse,” he gritted out, brandishing his phone around so everyone could see it. “I told you before, nobody could be there without getting noticed and us knowing immediately. You got played. And now someone who KNOWS OUR IDENTITIES is out there and we have no idea how much of a threat she is because you got distracted by a pretty face.” 

“It was I goddamn gorgeous face and she got away when I got distracted by you arguing with me instead of just helping,” he growled at Tim. “And she isn’t a threat. I’m pretty sure she’s a hero of some kind.” Jason defended. He wasn’t sure about much of what was happening but the one thing he did know for certain was Pixie Pop was a hero or vigilante. She was trying to protect people and only got angry when she thought they were interfering with that. She wasn’t a villain and hadn’t been trying to take them down.

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t trust your judgement here,” Damian drawled.

Jason spun to face him red faced in anger. They weren’t listening. People were suffering and they were still acting like it was a joke, just like Pixie thought they were. He opened his mouth to respond but snapped it shut when he heard the door open. Selina slid through closing the door securely behind her.

“How is it out there?” Bruce asked grimly.

Selina shrugged. “Everyone bought the cover story easily. Those looking for a reason were judging, but the rest thought it was cute. They think he's taking after his dear old Dad. After witnessing you do something similar at almost every gala, ball, dance, opening, party, fundraiser, celebration, and just regular dinners for, what? A decade? Two? They see nothing strange in your son doing the same,” she said with an amused smile, taking a seat next to Tim on a table he was leaning against to get a better angle on the video. 

“Disappears for a few years then comes back and gets drunk whenever possible. It's nostalgic for them. Jason got your drinking, Dick got your philandering, Tim got your arguing, I believe you prefer to call it ‘negotiating’, and Damian got your looks.” Damian nodded satisfied his description was the only genetic trait and the only one that would not be considered a weakness. “Not that you aren't all very handsome,” she cooed mockingly, squeezing Tim’s cheeks to accentuate her point.

“Just to check, Selina you didn’t send anyone to spy on us tonight did you?” Bruce asked annoyed.

“Me? I haven’t sent anyone to watch you guys for ages.” Selina said innocently. “Someone was spying on you guys?” 

“That’s still up for debate, but regardless Jason said this girl knew our identities so we should try to track her down, assess the danger we and she are in… after the announcement.” Bruce was tired before this all started, this did not help. Dick, Tim, and Damian started to protest but Bruce held up a hand stopping them, “if she was intending to do something she would have made the threat to Jason or come up to us to extort us. She didn’t so either she’s waiting for us to make a move she can jump on or…” he took a deep breath, “or, she had no idea and doesn’t intend to do anything with it. I’m more concerned with whoever sent her. That is who we need to find and we find that person through her. As soon as the announcement is over, Tim, I want you checking security cameras to track her.”

Tim rolled his eyes and pushed off of the table he was leaning against, taking one last look at the live feed. “Okay, this break has been fun. I’m going back to the party. Jason, just go home and sleep it..." his sentence tapered off as he watched a silvery, rippling portal open near the bat computer. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped open in shock. Holy shit, Jason had been right. "What the fuck! Bruce! Look at this. Dick turn on the television there.” He pushed a few buttons on his phone and sent the image to display on the TV.

The family watched in shocked silence as a figure emerged from the shimmering pool with an enraged look on their face and hands clenched at their sides. They stared at the figure trying to decide if they remembered ever having seen them before. The figure was wearing a full body suit in varying shades of brown that seemed heavily padded for protection. Their hair was pulled back into a series of long ponytails forming something reminiscent of a horse’s mane that flowed down their back. The most unsettling thing about the figure, other than that they were in the cave without permission, was their expression. Even with half of their face obscured by a pair of pince-nez sunglasses, the angry expression was clear. They glared at the computer but made no move to get closer.

“I fucking told you she was telling the truth!” Jason yelled pointing at the screen for emphasis.

Dick growled and turned to leave but Bruce stopped him holding up a finger to indicate he should wait. “Can’t do anything without a car anyway. Call for the car and watch until it gets close.” Dick nodded and pulled out his phone to call Alfred.

Dick nearly dropped the phone when the figure suddenly yelled “Come out and face me you coward!” in the general direction of the computer as the portal behind them disappeared.

“What the fuck?” Tim whispered confused. “Do they think there we’re there and camouflaged?”

“Or can they see something we can’t?” Dick contemplated staring hard at the scene in front of him. The figure wasn’t moving to do anything to the equipment in the cave, wasn’t trying to damage it or investigate it. They were focused on something else, something none of them in the room could see.

They all froze when out of the ether they heard a man’s voice respond. “You ready for them to know we’re here, Spots?”

“Oh, they already know,” the figure growled out.

“Ah, that didn’t take as long as I thought it would,” the voice responded. “Okay Trixx. Might as well drop it then.”

As soon as he said the words, it was like a curtain dropped and suddenly a man in a trench coat was standing in front of a very active bat computer. Alarms sounded throughout the safe room, as all of their phones rang out with trespassing alerts. 

“What the hell?” Tim exclaimed. “The computer was on sleep mode just a second ago.” He brought his phone closer to his face trying to examine the scene better. He and Barbara had designed the system to detect changes in visual, audio, thermal, and electronic signals as well as vibrations caused by any movement. Whatever they were using had somehow interrupted detection for all of those. “How the hell did they do that?”

Jason ignored the room devolving into chaos behind him, deciding to study the figure in front of the computer instead. The hair and trench coat were very familiar. “Is that Constantine?” Jason asked.

“You absolute bastard! What was that?” the figure yelled gesturing vaguely behind them and stalking closer to the man.

“Yeah, that sounds like Constantine,” Bruce shook his head, resigned to the situation. “Tell Alfred there isn’t a rush. Constantine won’t try to do anything he hasn’t already done.”

“You going to hit me while you're like that, Spots? Bit unfair don't you think?” Constantine said barely glancing over to her from the computer.

The figure stared at him shaking in rage for a few seconds before forcing out, something that sounded like “dismount” through gritted teeth. A blinding wave of sea green light engulfed the figure. When the light faded, a woman in a long red dress and the same glasses as the other figure was standing where the figure had been. She removed the glasses and shoved them in her purse before returning her glare to the man at the computer.

“That’s her!” Jason yelled, pointing at the screen. “That’s the woman I was dancing with. Different dress but same woman.”

“Well at least now we know why she thought it was a prank when she figured us out, assuming she knows who he is, which I assume is why she is working with him in the first place, so she does.” Bruce said rubbing his forehead to ease the quickly oncoming headache. Whenever Constantine got involved things went to Hell, sometimes literally, very quickly and Bruce had not had enough sleep or bourbon to deal with this. Contrary to his reputation, he rarely drank but this situation, _this situation_ , whatever the hell it was, justified a drink.

“Fuck! No wonder I couldn’t find her. She somehow pulled a fucking Houdini and changed her entire appearance.” Jason yelled exasperated.

Constantine typed a few more things on the computer before finally facing her nonchalantly “Not to change the subject but that is a really good glare. Scarier than Batman, honestly. I could _feel_ it through the back of my head. I’m this close to being intimidated,” he said holding his thumb and index finger close together. “I swear, if you keep glaring at me that…” before he could finish his sentence the woman had delivered a strong right hook directly to his jaw.

Constantine fell backwards, knocking into the chair positioned next to the computer, sending it spinning away on his way down, landing on his hands and knees. He gently rubbed his jaw with a wince and looked back up at her with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, fair enough.” He slowly stood back up using the chair and computer to help support him on his way up. “Have fun, kid? Meet any cute boys? Girls? Thems? Guess never asked which way you swing.”

The woman responded by kicking him hard in the chest with a suddenly bare foot. He fell back against the computer from the impact with a surprised grunt. Before he could get up she moved her foot on his throat to hold him there, braced against the computer. She had been careful to place her foot flush on his throat but he wasn’t making any noises so she wasn’t pushing hard on it. The family were all familiar with the move. It didn’t allow him to move but did allow him to speak. A good questioning position.

“You left some valuable details out of the multiple briefings we had. Weeks where you could have mentioned them. Details like you could have just ASKED for this if you weren’t such a fucking self-absorbed coward.” She seethed at him.

Jason made a gurgling sound as he watched her stand over Constantine, suddenly feeling flushed. He had not expected her to be able to take down a grown man like that, like it was second nature, effortless. Two quick moves and he was at her mercy. He couldn’t stop picturing himself in Constantine’s place, at her mercy, and that thought alone made his heart race and breathing more difficult. The things she could do to him… He shook his head of the highly enjoyable thought. Now was not the time for that.

“You know, I’m pressing a lot of buttons here,” Constantine croaked out. “I might have to restart the whole process if you’re not careful. Would take time. Maybe enough for the whole family to return.”

“Fuck you.” She growled at him retracting her leg so he could stand up properly.

“Oh I swing all ways except that way. You may be legal, _technically_ , but you're still a kid and I'm not a pedo.” He rubbed his throat as he straightened back up. To the surprise of those in the room who knew him, he didn’t react at all. He seemed to accept the attack as justified and turned back around and got back to work on the computer. Not that they were expecting him to attack back physically but Constantine was never had nothing to say, except now.

“You're an asshole.” She glared at him again crouching down to put her shoe back on.

“Well, yeah, but even assholes have standards. By the way, really impressed you didn’t fall over there. Standing on one stilettoed leg without falling or losing your modesty? Impressive. So you never did say, how did it go? Assuming you are done now.”

The family tensed for another attack when they saw her jump into a battle stance. They watched confused as she switched to a crouching position and started cooing at nothing. After a few moments, they saw what had drawn her attention. Alfred the cat had jumped onto the computer like he was chasing after something.

“How the hell did your cat get into the cave?” Tim demanded from Damian. “He better not mess with anything on the computer.”

“If that second rate concubine touches a hair on Alfred, I will cut her fingers off one at a time.” Damian growled at the screen.

Bruce squeezed the bridge of his nose, “Not quite the Alfred I would have hoped would intervene…”

Constantine looked over at the cat and grunted, “Not looking for a trip to Hell today, but thanks for the offer. Scat.” He shooed the cat away and turned to go back to his work on the computer.

The woman looked back at Constantine and frowned at him, “I don’t know if I’m done yet. I’m still deciding,” she said snidely. “And don’t you dare go anywhere near this poor cat.” Alfred trotted over to the woman, keeping his eyes on Constantine the whole way. When he got to the woman he rubbed up against her legs and looked up at her with a meow.

She reached down to pet the cat gently and start talking to him quietly.

“Holy shit, Demon Spawn. I think the cat likes her better than you.” Jason laughed. Bruce put his hand on Damian’s shoulder when he jumped up to charge at Jason.

“No bloodshed tonight, please. And Jason, stop antagonizing him,” he admonished both of them. This was shaping up to be the worst gala they’ve had. And they’ve had galas attacked by rogues before. That was still more pleasurable than whatever was going on here. Yep, that was definitely the beginning of a migraine he was feeling.

Constantine grunted out a single laugh. “Yeah, right. Because you can hold a grudge.”

She stared hard at Constantine for a few moments before something seemed to click in her head. “Oh my God, he was right. I was only there because you wanted me to get out and have fun, figuring I’d forgive you for the convoluted plans and the wait.”

“Is that so bad? You’re still a kid, you should have fun at some point in your life. Also, who is ‘he’?”

“So you gave me homework? Are you so old you forget homework is not fun? Or did they not have things like homework or school when you were my age?” She snarked annoyed, ignoring the last part of the question.

“No they didn’t have homework WAY back then, or paper, we just grunted to each other and absorbed information through osmosis,” he shot her a sour look. “And fun wasn’t my only goal, but it was an important one. Why, didn’t have fun?”

“Oh no, I did. Until I remembered it isn’t something I get to keep, remembered that nothing about tonight sticks except that device,” she said pointing to something on the computer. “Everything about tonight is just an illusion because I haven’t been good enough, because I failed. Thanks for that reminder.” A guilty look flashed across her face before returning back to a glare. “The remaining part of the night was focused on keeping tabs on the Waynes and fending off entitled pricks’ wandering hands,” she said slowly as if explaining something that should have been obvious.

A dark shadow passed over Constantine’s face. He turned his focus from the computer for a moment to address her directly, “That is not on you. None of that is on you. Whatever the fuck your overactive conscious tells you. That fucking conscious of yours is going to get you killed then I’m going to have to go to Hell to get you out. I don’t enjoy Hell. DO NOT make me go back.” He scolded her. “For the hands, get any names? I know a few demons looking for someone to… _play_ with. It wasn’t any of the Wayne kids, right?”

“You wanted me to meet the Waynes, didn’t you?” she narrowed her eyes in accusation. “Why would you tell me to NOT get noticed by them if you wanted me to meet them? How was that supposed to happen if I was avoiding them? Did you really think I was so completely incompetent? ”

“No, I thought you were that gorgeous and innocent looking. A combination that is impossible for any Wayne to ignore.” He sighed and glanced away seeming to brace himself for the conversation they were about to have. “I needed you to think you shouldn’t get noticed because otherwise there was no reason for you to go instead of Chat. And I needed you to go because not only do you need the break but precisely because you were going to get noticed by at least one of the Waynes and noticed in a very particular way that Chat wouldn’t.” he said waggling his eyebrows at her. 

“I thought it would take longer than it did, but at some point, one of the boys was going to take an interest in you and talk to you. And you being you would figure out their identities and tell him everything. You’re brilliant and noble like that,” he said sneering at the word noble, making it sound like the most disgusting word he had ever had to utter. 

“The youngest was the least likely to act but he is a bit young for you anyway. The next one is as smart and focused-on-the-mission-at-the-expense-of-all-other-things as you, so I thought you might get along. The next one is as much of a smartass and has the same fuck-you-to-authority, sarcastic attitude as you, so I thought you two might click. The oldest is as annoyingly sunshiney as you, so that seemed like it might work. Honestly, I thought he was the safest bet since he hits on everything with tits… Unless he was the one you were speaking with in which case, what I meant to say was… uh… keep an eye on him if cheating bothers you.”

Dick gave an offended gasp at the accusation.

“Yeah, totally unfair description. You don’t require tits to hit on someone.” Jason said clapping him on the back

“I don't know that I like the idea of you dating any of them. But it would have gotten them involved without me breaking my promise because, I have said nothing,” Constantine said glancing back towards her for a moment. “But it sounds like you did,” he said with a cocky grin.

“Asshole,” she sneered at him sitting on the floor to get into a better position to pet Alfred.

“Yeah, but an asshole that keeps his word.” He focused back on the computer and clicked around for a few more minutes before discretely glancing over at her, “Sooooo, did being here make you change your mind?”

“Nothing about tonight made me change my mind about bringing in outside help but it did make me reconsider the wisdom of allowing your interference.” She said shaking her head and glaring at him.

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” he growled out hitting the computer in frustration. He rounded on her and stalked over to her, looming over her. “Fuck the goddamned, mother fucking mission for ONCE. Your life is supposed to be more than the fucking suit. Did being in Gotham make you rethink turning down that acceptance letter?”

“What?” She looked at him wide eyed in surprise but didn’t seem scared of his sudden outburst unlike Alfred who jumped up and hissed at him as he approached.

Constantine sighed sitting down near her and looked away seeming to examine thin air over her shoulder, “I know you got accepted to go here but turned it down because of Paris,” he said quietly.

Her lips pressed together in a thin line and turned her head to glare at the same point in the air, “How did you know that?”

“Your partners are worried about you. You turned it down because of the situation in Paris. You can’t let that be the only thing in your life. You got accepted everywhere. You could go anywhere and you should. Come on, if Gotham didn’t do it for you I can talk to people in Metropolis, Jump City, Central City, Starling City… Just somewhere out of Paris.”

Her eyes flared but she gave out a resigned sigh. “I liked you better when you didn’t care about us.” She said with a wry smile, suddenly finding the cat at her feet batting at the air to be the most interesting thing in the room. 

“I still don’t,” he said unconvincingly as he backing up and returning to the computer.

She let out a doubtful scoff but continued to pet Alfred. After a few moments of silence she cocked her head to the side and looked up at Constantine with an impish smirk. “Awfully coincidental that all those cities have heroes that are roughly my age. You trying to set me up with more superheroes? First a bat now a titan? Or were you leaning more towards an arrow?”

“With Roy! God no. Jason is as depraved as I am willing to let you go.” Constantine sounded offended.

“Jason is NOT depraved!” she exclaimed affronted.

“Ahh, so it was Jason…” he said looking over his shoulder to throw her a cocky smile.

“Fuck you.” She grumbled with no heat behind it, returning her focus to Alfred, much to his apparent pleasure.

“Already said no to that. But, if it was Jason, I sincerely hope they were watching that move you pulled when you first came in because he is going to be panting after you after seeing that.”

Her cheeks flushed brightly and Jason preened at causing her to blush even without being there. She let out annoyed growl. “This is not the place for this conversation. Actually, there is no place where I would want to have this conversation with you but especially not where we probably have an audience. Did you get the information?”

“Almost done. Someone interrupted me,” Constantine subconsciously rubbed his jaw, “or I would be done already,” he said pointedly. “And here,” he said throwing a small, white cube into the air but the woman made no move to catch it keeping her eyes on Constantine instead.

“It was important. Believe me when I say I cut that way shorter than I wanted. You should really thank this kitty for your lack of bruises,” she said cooing at the cat and petting him more.

“Hell of a thanks for getting this for you,” he said holding up a small device. “Luckily for us, one of them, I’m guessing Tim, already did the hard work getting the information from the League for us. Believe _me_ when _I_ say getting it from the League of Assassins would have been far, _far_ more difficult than from the bats.”

“Awesome. Let’s get out of here before any of the bats come home to roost. I’m not looking forward to the wrath leaving a wake of bloody and bruised bats would create.” She stepped away and whispered something they couldn’t hear. As soon as she said the words, she was bathed in a blinding aqua light again and was replaced with the figure they first saw step out of the portal.

“She has a magical girl sequence…” Dick whispered in awe.

The woman said something sounding like “Voyage” and made a motion to her side. A shimmering portal opened where she had previously indicated. “Come on, we’ve been here too long as it is.” She said stepping through the portal.

Constantine looked up at the surveillance camera and gave a wicked smile with a salute before following her through the portal.

The portal closed, leaving the batcave quiet and empty again.

The bat boys stared at the screen for a few more seconds unsure what to say next. Bruce moved forward to speak when there was movement on the screen. They watched as a much smaller portal opened back up and Alfred was pushed through, the portal closed quickly behind him. Alfred turned around and looked around meowing a few times, batting his paw where the portal was.

The quiet of the room was disrupted by a loud phone ringer waking everyone out of their stupor. Suddenly everyone started talking at once except for Damian who just glared at the screen. Dick yelled over everyone to silence them pulling out his phone. “Hey Alfred, we’ll be right out.” He started to make his way to the exit followed by everyone else when Bruce stopped them.

“They're gone and it's Constantine, it won't be against us. We don't need to prepare for an attack. The priority right now is the announcement. We make the announcement then call Constantine and investigate her.”

“You would choose the one person in the room that was spying on us, Todd.” Damian growled redirecting his glare toward Jason instead of the screen.

“And yet, not the most deceitful one in the room or the most dangerous. Definitely the hottest though. No offense Dick.” Jason said shrugging off the accusation.

“Not the most dangerous to us? She just threatened to leave a, and I quote, ‘wake of bloody and bruised bats’ behind her. And she found a way to bypass all of our security to break into the cave and hack the computer. How is that not a threat?” Tim yelled at him. This girl was an immediate threat they knew nothing about. She was skilled and had magic on her side and they knew nothing, absolutely fucking nothing, about her to know what kind of threat she was and Jason was just going with it because she had a pretty face. He was going to let this girl saunter on into their sanctum sanctorum with no questions at all. “I know it is hard for you, but you need to start looking beyond your next conquest or you are going to get us all killed.”

“Let me get this straight,” Jason glared at the family, “Dick spent the night talking up a chick that would sell us all out for a dime just so he could get lucky. Tim spent the night talking up a business man I saw sexually assault someone AT THIS GALA just so he had the chance at a few extra bucks.” Tim opened his mouth to defend himself but Jason continued, speaking over him. “Bruce spent the night talking up a known thief who was probably casing the guests for a future job, again just so he could get lucky. No offense Selina.” She bowed her head and held up her champagne glass to show she took it in stride. And he wasn’t wrong. That was exactly what she was doing and why she asked for the information on that woman’s designer. 

“And Damian... well Damian doesn't talk to people but I guarantee he spent the night plotting multiple people's murder, mine included. There’s no way he wasn’t.” Damian crossed his arms and looked away, even more annoyed by the accurate description. “And I'm getting in trouble because I spent the night talking up someone working with an ally?” he asked incredulously. 

They had all just witnessed the same scene. They had evidence she wasn’t a villain, she wasn’t a threat. She was someone they needed to help and they weren’t seeing it. This is exactly why he hated working with them. Oh, they wanted to help, but only on their terms. Only if they controlled it and they didn’t control this. This was an unknown that had been dropped on them instead of them finding and investigating on their own. They were licking their wounded egos instead of trying to figure out how to help. They were wasting time with this stupid argument. “Fuck all of you and your fucked up so called ‘morals’. She might have been the only really good person in this room, definitely the only trustworthy, honest person and you’re ignoring the situation Constantine mentioned.”

“She was spying on us, imbecile.” Damian growled at him.

“FOR CONSTANTINE!” he yelled back. How were they still missing that point? It was like they were intentionally missing it. “Did nobody else watch what just happened? Did all of you assholes miss Constantine say he devised this whole thing to get us to help her? Did you shitheads miss how Constantine is treating her? He ain't treating her like he does us. He’s being protective. That means he thinks she’s a good guy and a good person unlike the rest of us mother fuckers. More than that, he’s treating her with kid gloves. He doesn’t treat anyone with kid gloves, not even kids. He’s trying to help her in and out of the mask. He’s motherhenning the fuck out of her. When have any of you ever seen Constantine act that way about anyone or anything? She needs our help.”

“SHE HELPED SOMEONE BREAK INTO THE BATCAVE!” Tim yelled.

“ENOUGH!” Bruce yelled silencing everyone in the room. “Like he told her, this entire night was more about her than us. He wanted us to know something was going on and for us to get involved. And he was desperate enough to keep her trust that he concocted this whole plot to make sure we knew without breaking his word. He probably left us a clue by not covering what he got from the computer if not a message.”

“That’s a lot of words for ‘Jason is right’” Jason said smugly. “Come on B, you can just say it. ‘Jason is right. We should listen to him.’ It’ll make you feel lighter to just finally say it.”

“You can’t be serious father,” Damian groused.

“Stop being such a jealous ass bitch, Demon Spawn. Just because Alfred tried to run away with her…” Jason smirked at him.

Damian jumped up, face bright red and furious indicating he had every intention of following through with the plans he had been making during the gala. Bruce stepped between him and Jason, not prepared to deal with the fight right now. They had an announcement to make and it would not look good if the boys showed up with fresh cuts and bruises. It’s hard to sell the story of a happy, functional family when the evidence to the contrary is on full display. “Now that we all agree,” he glared at them all until they quieted down. “We’ve been in here long enough. Let’s get back out there and make the announcement and show everyone what a supportive family that is ecstatic to have their brother back we are. After that, Tim and Jason can go home to start the investigation.”

“Father, I would certainly be more help than him,” Damian objected indicating Jason, “also, there is no reason for me to still be here with these vapid, insolent morons.”

Bruce grunted. Damian had a point about no reason for him to be there. And the longer he was here the more likely it would be for him to finally snap and break someone’s hand and maybe more. “Fine. Take Damian, too.” He waved his hand dismissively. “Now move, we’re making this announcement right now.”

Damian gave a curt nod and turned to follow his father out of the door. Selina coughed discretely drawing Bruce’s attention back to the room. He looked at her questioningly. She eyed Damian and Jason then nodded toward Dick.

Ahh. She had a point, those three together would result in blood at the very least and the high probability for broken bones, cracked ribs, and dislocated joints, making patrol schedules very difficult until they healed. “And Dick. Nobody kills anyone. I don’t care what you find or what is said, I don’t want any blood to clean when I get back.”

He started walking again but noticed nobody following him. He turned back to them exasperated and raised an eyebrow. He noted everyone’s eyes on him giving him a deadpan expression and questioning expressions of their own. “Fine, I don’t want _Alfred_ to have to clean any blood when he gets back,” he sighed. There was a round of begrudging agreement noises and the family started moving toward the gala again. 

The boys followed him out the door but Dick held onto Tim’s shoulder prompting him to hang back from the rest of the group. He watched the rest of the family walk ahead of them. When there was sufficient space between them, he started hitting Tim’s shoulder repeatedly still not looking at him. Tim brushed off his hands and glared at him annoyed, “What? You know Bruce is going to be mad we’re not out there.”

“Yeah, yeah. This will be quick.” He glanced round to make sure nobody was close enough to hear them. “Bring up the video of the woman in the cave again.”

Tim gave him a suspicious look but pulled it up. “Okay, now what?”

Dick grinned excitedly, “Rewind the recording to the beginning. Can you get a better angle of her glare? I need to see the glare that is better than Batman’s.” Bruce’s glare was legendary. If this girl’s glare is that good, he had to see it. Tim grinned back and scrolled through the different feeds looking for the one that would give them the best angle.


	3. Cats are Liquid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette and Constantine tell Adrien how the night went and the batfamily decide what their next move is going to be.

Adrien was resting lightly on the hotel couch as he waited for Marinette and Constantine to return from their mission. It probably would have been wiser to just wait until the morning to check on Marinette but he wanted to be available to leave immediately in case something happened. Plus he wanted to see Constantine before he went home so he could make sure they all agreed on the next steps. Which led to his current position in their base of operations, covered in popcorn from an overturned bowl, in front of a table full of caffeinated drinks that hadn’t been as effective as he was hoping, the credits for the latest movie in his movie marathon rolling by on the television, and Plagg snoring loudly atop the overturned bowl.

Their Base of Operations was a penthouse room in Le Grand Paris Hotel next to Chloe’s room. She had convinced her Daddy she _needed_ to have the extra room so she could have a gym and meditation area nearby. After all, was she really expected to _share_ a gym with other people and their germs? Did he have _no_ concern for her health _at all_! Did he _want_ her to get sick? And with the whole Hawkmoth situation, she needed to meditate to relieve stress. Did he _really_ think there was any way she could relax _sharing_ a meditation area with other people!? Stressed people had trouble focusing in school. Did he _want_ her to fail out of school? Did he want her to be stressed out and stress eat? To be sick and unhealthy and uneducated and miserable and get AKUMATIZED? Again? Is that really what he wanted for his only daughter? 

The speed at which he caved was a personal best for Chloe and will forever be used by the team as a measure of speed, “yeah, that was fast, but not like meditation room fast”. And if the room she selected just so happened to have a balcony the heroes could use to swing in on and an extra bed they could use to collapse into after a tough fight and gym mats that could be used for sparring and a fully stocked refrigerator and pantry with the snacks the kwamis liked best and soundproofed walls (I mean honestly how was Chloe supposed to be expected to meditate in an unsoundproofed room?), it’s not really anyone else’s concern, now is it.

However, after hours of watching bad movies, the resolve he had earlier in the night of staying up until they returned had waned and he had involuntarily drifted off to sleep. It was almost sunrise and not long after that was when he would normally wake up for the day. Thankfully, he didn’t have anything scheduled for the day to ‘work on a large project’ with Chloe all day, so he would be able to sleep in and try to catch up. But as it was, he was running on almost no sleep for about 24 hours, after a full week of late nights and early mornings preparing for tonight, and consequently he was a little out of it. So perhaps he should be excused for having a very loose grip on reality at the present moment. 

As soon as the portal opened behind his couch, he bolted up sensing the change in pressure more than reacting to any actual sound and immediately collapsed back on the couch when the sudden rush of blood made him dizzy. He blinked heavily as he watched Marinette and Constantine walk through the portal. He kept his focus on the portal behind them, mesmerized by the shimmering waves it created and still trying to get his hazy brain to focus on the present even after the portal had closed. He rubbed his eyes and squinted, still not sure if he was dreaming or conscious or if the two were bleeding together. “Is that… did you bring me a cat?” he asked in an uncertain voice still trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

“A what?” Marinette asked whipping around. “Oh for God’s sake. Seriously, cat. You’re not allowed to eat the kwamis,” she chastised the cat who dutifully ignored her and jumped onto the coffee table in front of Adrien to get a better look at the new kwami he had discovered, knocking over a few of Adrien’s drinks along the way.

Constantine huffed out a single laugh and tossed a cigarette into his mouth as he made his way toward the balcony, “Persistent little bugger. Good luck with that. I’m going out for a smoke.”

The cat cocked his head to the side and stared at the kwami. He cautiously raised his paw toward him as if to bat at him and started making chirping noises at him. When Plagg didn’t respond to the chirping, the cat moved a few steps closer to the black cat kwami and tried meowing at him.

“Back off fleabag,” Plagg hissed eyeing the infiltrator hostilely, “there’s already one cat here and I don’t share.”

“Only one?” Tikki asked amused.

“He doesn’t count his isn’t a real cat,” Plagg spluttered out motioning towards Adrien.

“Neither are you,” Adrien pointed out blithely.

Plagg flew into Adrien’s face to glare at him, “Look here you little…”

“Relax Plagg, I’m sending him back now,” Marinette interrupted rolling her eyes. “Voyage,” she called out picturing the Batcave and moving her arm to create a much smaller, cat sized portal she could push their stowaway through. She attempted to pick up the cat, but he apparently had other ideas. He twisted smoothly out of her hands, struggling to stay near the kwami. “Ugh,” Marinette grunted after a few more failed attempts, “Stop being a liquid!” she ordered the cat who continued to ignore her, but still rubbed against her legs on his way past her. “Tikki, Trixx, can you help out here?” she asked exasperated.

“Sure thing,” Trixx chirped and Trixx and Tikki flew around the cat’s head, gaining his attention. Once they were sure the cat was paying attention to them and willing to follow their movements, they both flew toward the portal at top speed, splitting up just before going through the portal. The cat raced after them but wasn’t quick enough to change his direction in time to avoid the portal. His momentum and Marinette’s well timed push caused him to slide through the portal. As soon as he was through, Marinette closed the portal, sealing him on the other side. They may be data thieves, but they were not cat thieves and she was not in the mood to deal with Plagg’s territoriality.

Marinette called off her transformation and collapsed into a large arm chair, letting out a long, tired sigh as she pulled off her shoes and tossed them on the floor. She rested her head against the back of the chair and closed her eyes, trying to meld with the chair and become one. She was ready for this night and this mission to be over. She didn’t even want to check that they got the data, she just wanted to go to sleep and never think about this night or blue eyes ever again. The gala was the past. It had no place in her future. Except that after all the information she had so stupidly shared both in the cave and at the gala, to a member of the Batfamily at that, they could definitely expect an immanent visit from the Batfamily and they would have to be prepared for that.

Adrien glanced over at Marinette amused at her exhaustion. He hoped her exhaustion was due to her having fun at the gala. Maybe she had met someone, at least for the night. Or maybe she had been able to network a bit. With the dress she had… his eyes widened as he suddenly noted her dress. That wasn’t what her dress looked like when she had left. That wasn’t a good sign. She was in the escape plan version of the dress, the shit-went-to-Hell version of the dress. It was supposed to be a last resort option. Well shit… On the bright side, that version of the dress was a lot more appealing and would have gotten more attention, so she might have gotten something out of the night after all. He shook his head and plastered on a fake smile, “So, how did it go? Was the mission a success?”

Marinette opened one eye to glare at him, the effect of which he thought was quite impressive considering she was only using one eye, honestly. “How did it go?” she repeated back to him in a belligerent tone opening both eyes to fully glare at him. “How did it go? How do you think it went?” she asked moving her hands up and down over her body indicating her dress.

“It looks like you got to show off that amazing design. So… any commissions? Get any phone numbers? Get the data?” He tried again still with a forced optimism.

“Oh he got the data alright,” her voice was dripping in false sweetness before switching to venom. “From the batcomputer in the Batcave as he was stealing it from _Batman_.” She replied intentionally avoiding the commission question because like hell was she going to hand him that win. 

“What?!” Adrien exclaimed in shock.

“Yeah, that was the mission. Keep eyes on Batman while Constantine stole from him.”

“But you were supposed to keep an eye on the Waynes…”he commented confused.

“Exactly,” she confirmed with an acerbic smile.

“Wait… what! Bruce Wayne is Batman!!” he jumped up off the couch.

“Yep” she said popping the p.

“Shit,” he ran his hand over his face and collapsed back on the couch.

“That was roughly my response as well but with a lot more hostility and cursing.”

“But, I don’t understand… doesn’t he know Batman? Haven’t they worked together before? Why would we have to go through all of this if it was his friend?” his brain was still waking up and this was a lot to process and clearly his brain was not ready to do so.

“That is an excellent question my young Padawan,” she stood up moving closer to him.

“I’m older than you,” he interrupted with an annoyed look, but Marinette continued on ignoring him.

“And who does Constantine avoid at all costs?”

Adrien thought about it. They didn’t know Constantine extremely well, but they had managed to get a pretty good feel for him, “Legal authorities, debt collectors, his exes…”

“Exactly,” she interrupted “and since he doesn’t consider Batman a legal authority based on having worked with him before, and he doesn’t owe him money…”

“Oh my God!! He was screwing Batman!”

“It would seem so,” she nodded picking up one of the drinks on the table and contemplating the benefits of drinking it vs just saying fuck it and going to bed now.

“All that stuff we did? All that prep work, all that studying, the planning, the stress, the lost sleep, it was all because he wanted to avoid his ex?” Adrien needed clarification on this because they had gone through a lot in the last few weeks, unnecessarily so if that was true. Why had they allowed Constantine to help them again?

“He wanted to avoid him but get him involved with us. He figured this little undercover operation would achieve both.”

“Wait, how was you going to the Gala supposed to help?”

“Oh that’s another brilliant part of this clusterfuck of a night. The whole ‘stay undetected’ proviso was a fake out. The entire point was to _get_ noticed. That’s why he sent me instead of you.”

“But, I’m famous so me going would have done that better.” Adrien couldn’t figure out if none of this made sense because his brain was still turned off or if it really didn’t make any sense, but Marinette’s reaction seemed to confirm that it wasn’t just him that was struggling with this.

“He didn’t just want us to get noticed, he wanted one of the bat boys to get invested, and he thought that was more likely if it was me rather than you. Apparently I look a lot more pathetic than you, so I worked better in his little plan,” she grumbled before smirking at him. “Personally, I think he vastly underestimated your ability to flirt and apparently the oldest brother is something of a slut so you could have possibly gotten a date out of it or at least a make out session. You should talk to him about that.”

Adrien stared at her as she ranted, trying to process everything she was telling him. One phrase caught his attention though, “which one is the oldest one again? Is he the one with the hair and the eyes and the…” he motioned toward his shoulders trying to indicate broad shoulders and firm body, “the gymnast?”

“Yep, that’s the one,” she nodded.

“Shit.” Adrien looked dejected. But turned back to her with a rakish smile. “So did his plan work? Did one of them ‘invest’ in you?”

“Not in me… ugh” she fell onto the couch. “So, on top of everything else, the brother we thought was dead? He’s very much alive. A wonderful fact which Constantine knew and I discovered WHILE I WAS DANCING WITH HIM! I mentioned the Hawkmoth situation to him in a very vague way before I knew who he was, which I would never have done if I’d known who he was, and I would have known if Constantine had fucking TOLD us about him.” She shouted toward the balcony. 

“So…” Adrien prompted her.

“He seemed invested in stopping people getting hurt when I ran out, not in me.” She clarified, though whether she was trying to convince herself or him, she wasn’t sure.

“… you were dancing with him?” Adrien cocked his head to the side and gave her a smirk. “How closely were you dancing, exactly?”

“It wasn’t… that’s not how… It wasn’t like that. I was using him as a cover to get onto the dancefloor to observe the Waynes.” She floundered, her cheeks starting to turn pink as she forced down the ‘not close e-fucking-nough’ that wanted to break out.

“Don’t let her lie to you like that,” Constantine said coming back into the room. “She and Jason were getting cozy.”

“You were not there. We were NOT getting cozy,” she lied through her teeth, pointing a threatening finger towards him. And they certainly hadn’t been as cozy as she would have liked, so it isn’t really a lie, only kind of a lie.

“How cozy were you getting? Should I start planning a shovel talk?” Adrien grinned, enjoying every second of this.

Marinette sputtered at him, her blush turning darker, “This is not about my non-existent love life, this is about Constantine’s fucked up sex life. It is about him going through all this so he could avoid having to talk to his ex. He could have just asked Wayne for the information if he wasn’t so focused on his stupid little lover’s spat.”

“It wasn’t a lover’s spat.” Constantine corrected offended by the suggestion.

“Just a prank on your boyfriend then?” Marinette hissed at him, “at the expense of our time and Parisians’ sanity.”

“He isn’t… we aren’t… I have never and will never sleep with Batman. God, of all the vigilantes to suggest… I mean not the worst but not even when drunk and desperate.”

“You’ll screw a shark but not a bat?” Adrien asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“Okay, first I didn’t screw a shark, I got screwed by a shark, a lot. There is a difference. I highly recommend it actually... well maybe not to you two sunshine children… but the loud, blonde one seems like she might be into having fun.”

Adrien made a gagging sound and Marinette turned away quickly, shuddering and closing her eyes against the thought of Chloe and… anything. She didn’t want to think about Chloe doing anything with anyone. “I think I need to scrub my brain with bleach.”

“Second,” Constantine continued on, pretending he wasn’t enjoying their reaction to his statement, that it wasn’t the exact reaction he was trying to illicit, “ew. Too much drama involved. And, I’d still like to know how you found out about that anyway.”

Marinette looked over to Adrien to answer but noticed he was completely lost in thought, probably still trying to think of something to take his mind off of Chloe before glancing over to Plagg. Plagg looked up from the pillow he had settled on and shrugged, “you smell like fish.”

Adrien cocked his head to the side still deep in thought. “So… does that make him a Furry?”

“What the hell, Adrien! Is that really the focus here?” Marinette exclaimed hitting him on the shoulder. She was desperate to stop thinking about Chloe but Constantine doing anything with anyone was not an improvement over that. On the bright side, she wasn’t thinking about the gala anymore but God, at what cost?

“I mean, sharks don’t have fur so… finny?” he said still looking at nothing while he thought through the implications. “But furry is a reference to their skin and shark skin is made up of denticles, really tiny scales, so… scaly? No, that doesn’t sound nice. ‘Furry’ sounds cute, being into non-mammals should get a cute name too. Yeah, finny is definitely better. But since, a bat is a mammal, sleeping with the bat would’ve made him a furry. So he’s a finny, not a furry.” He said with a nod, proud of himself for working that out.

Marinette stared at him incredulously and ran a hand over her face, “Never has your scientific experience been more inappropriately utilized.”

“Oh no, you don’t know the conversations Red Cap, Glasses, Skater Girl, Monkey Boy, and he have. It gets _much_ more inappropriately utilized and quite often.” Plagg said with an evil grin.

“You’re both wrong. Furry refers to people in costumes meant to evoke an animal. One really is a shark and the other isn’t trying to actually look like a bat so neither qualify, if we’re getting technical.” Constantine said leaning against the arm chair, arms folded over his chest. “As much as I like to discuss people’s sexual proclivities, is that really what you want to discuss before I leave? No better questions you want to focus on before I go?”

Marinette was almost grateful for him voicing his concern and changing the topic. Almost. Because she knew his concern wasn’t with staying on topic. The waste that the last two weeks were stood as testament to that fact. He didn’t care about wasting time. He had a point he wanted to make and he wanted their attention for it. 

She wanted to get mad at him. She wanted to lecture him, but everything about this night was messy and frustrating and aggravating and it was all his fault so he didn’t get a pass even if she knew he was trying to help. At this point in the night… morning? God it was so late. At this point in the morning, she just wanted to drop it and let sleep wash away the night and the memories. Thankfully, she had Adrien. And Adrien takes Parisian suffering just as personally as she does.

Adrien looked at Constantine in feigned naïve confusion, “What did you want to focus on? How you made us unwitting accomplices to stealing from a superhero? How we are now on the Justice League’s radar as possible villains? How you lied to us the entire time you’ve been working with us? How you manipulated us against our express wishes to try to force our hand? How you ignored all of our expertise and thought out conclusions and instead of talking with us, played games with ours and other Parisians’ lives? How you wasted our time? During which time approximately 3 million Parisians died as a result of 8 akuma attacks. Which one did you want to focus on right now?”

Constantine rolled his eyes and huffed out a breath. “Dramatic much? Two weeks and one or two more deaths for someone who has already died a dozen times isn’t going to make much of a difference, but getting Batman involved might.”

“It makes a huge fucking difference to the people going through it. One more on top of so many others can be enough to cause a break that might take years or decades to recover from, if they ever do, to drive someone irrevocably insane. It makes a difference to the child who lost their innocence because of it.” Marinette hissed at him, suddenly very much awake.

“You swore to keep the Justice League out of this,” Adrien growled next to her. “That was the one condition. We were very clear on our opinion on the matter. You agreed. You swore you would abide by our rules.”

“I agreed to abide by the rule. I never said I agreed with it. I swore I wouldn’t communicate anything with or to them. I didn’t,” he said pointing to Marinette, “Spots did. And us being there did. I didn’t break anything… I just bent it a bit and if you’re asking me for my opinion…”

“We didn’t,” Marinette snarled.

“…I think that rule needs to be finessed. An exception made,” Constantine finished ignoring Marinette’s interjection.

“You don’t get to make that decision, you don’t even get a say. This is our city. You don’t dictate the terms here,” Adrien gave Constantine a dark look, rising from the couch to his full height. “You’re welcome to give advice. You’ve certainly had more experience with magic and fighting, but you didn’t do that. You didn’t offer your opinion or advice. You manipulated us and the situation to force us to do as you want. You involved Batman. That is...”

The rest of Adrien’s rant was interrupted by the sound of Constantine’s phone ringing. Constantine pulled out his phone and grunted as he saw the caller id, “Bollocks, speak of the Bat and the Bat shall appear. Took longer than I expected. He must be slipping or he isn’t worried about you.”

“What are you doing? Turn your phone off so they can’t track you.” Marinette ordered hurriedly jumping up when he didn’t immediately turn it off only calming down when he had turned it off. “And why wouldn’t he be worried about me? I am very worrisome.” She defended herself.

“I can attest to that,” Adrien nodded from her side.

She glared at him, then shook her head and cleared her throat, “I mean, good. We don’t want them to show too much interest. The less interest the better. Maybe if we make it hard to find us, they’ll just move on.” She winced as she finished saying it, not even believing it was an option herself.

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen and they’re going to know I’m in Paris.” Constantine scoffed.

“Probably, but they don’t have to know you’re in this room. Just leave it off until you leave. And remember you aren’t going to tell Batman anything.” Adrien ordered him pointing his finger towards him and levelling him with a steely look.

“Oh well thank you so much for your permission,” he snarked at him. “And just to be clear, I’ve been abiding by the no speaking rule… more or less, but this is Batman. It’s a losing battle. He’s going to find me and I’m not getting tortured by one of his kids for you. They’re all pain and no pleasure.” He opened his coat to put his phone back in his pocket and discretely sniffed the air between his body and his coat and furrowed his brow. He looked up and saw the two watching him. He stood back up nonchalantly. “And my advice is it’s a good idea for you to talk to him. He can help.”

“Does Batman have some insight into magic that we don’t? Or the ability to control his emotions? Would he respect us and listen to us? Is he trustworthy?”

“No, God no, that’s laughable, and fuck no. But what he does have is detective skills and a shit ton of backing money.”

“But we can’t trust him,” Marinette clarified.

“Sweetheart, you trusted me so… your judgement is suspect to begin with. I would have trusted him before I trusted me.”

“We needed you for your knowledge of magic, the history, the limits, how to wield it, how to manipulate it, where to find more information on it… and how to steal that information.” Marinette conceded the last bit. “That offset the trust factor. Batman doesn’t have any of that to offer.”

“I’m just saying…” he sighed quietly, “think about it. Or one of his kids. You could let one of his kids come or help you from a distance. They really are good detectives and you kids really do need a break. You’ve been doing a good job, but until you find Hawkmoth, this isn’t going to end. You won’t be able to move on. You could use a good detective for that. They don’t call them the world’s greatest detective for no reason.” He stopped to consider the title for a minute, “although Tim might actually be better than Bruce and better at controlling his emotions too.

“But your best bet might just be Jason,” he grinned devilishly at Marinette as she fought her blush. She was not going to blush just at hearing his name. She had more control than that, damn it. “It sounds like you’ve gotten his interest in the project already. He’s a good detective too, some experience with magic, and if he trusts you, you can trust him. He’ll have trouble with his temper so you’ll have to keep an eye on that, but you won’t find a better fighter.”

“Oh, that sounds like a great combination to have here, amazingly skilled fighter with no capacity for anger management,” Adrien bit at him. “That’s not Hawkmoth’s ideal candidate or anything.”

“Hard to control though, the best have tried. Even if Butterfly Man tries, he’s your best bet at resisting it,” he said knowingly. “And as tough as he looks, and is, he’d give the skin off his back to help someone in trouble, especially a kid.”

“Isn’t the phrase ‘shirt off his back’?” Marinette asked with a raised brow.

“He’d be more upset about the jacket. Just consider it. Maybe the information we got will be enough, but you can use all the allies you can get on your side. And maybe you could use a new approach, a new perspective.” Constantine sighed and looked back at the two teens noting the darkening bags under their eyes. “Now, get some sleep, you look like hell.”

“Personal knowledge?” Adrien quipped at him.

Marinette rolled her eyes, “You better be careful. If anyone were to hear you now they might think you give the slightest care about someone other than yourself. What would happen to your reputation then?” He huffed at her and she smirked back at him.

“I’ll just have to be extra careful to show my true feelings around other people, so nobody gets confused.” He responded.

Marinette hummed in response. He wasn’t fooling anyone and everyone there knew it. She sighed and stood up, calling for her transformation. “Voyage” she said quietly and motioned near Constantine to open a portal to his next destination.

“Let me know when you get it deciphered. I’m just a voyage away if you need anything. And if you need someone to talk to… definitely don’t be afraid to think better of calling me,” he said gruffly. Marinette rolled her eyes at him. “And think about what I said,” he said looking her in the eyes with a meaningful look. She nodded in understanding and offered a quiet “Good Night and thank you” to him. He turned to give a small nod to Adrien before walking through the portal.

“Want to talk about anything?” Adrien asked coming up behind her and bumping her with his shoulder.

Marinette shook her head, “We can talk about everything later. There isn’t anything you need to know right now. Let’s just go to sleep. It’s been a rough night.”

<><><><><>

“Constantine turned off his phone before I could get his exact location.” Tim called out loudly not bothering to look up from his spot in front of the computer in the Batcave. He hadn’t left his seat since returning from the gala. He had barely waited until the limo was stopped before jumping out and reporting immediately to the batcomputer. Unlike the rest of the family, he hadn’t even bothered to change out of his suit from the gala yet, too focused on trying to glean all the information he could from the breadcrumbs Constantine had left behind. 

They needed to track down that girl and figure out how much of a threat she was to them. She had already proven herself to be a clear and present threat and they needed to establish if she needed to be neutralized. First priority was Constantine though. He seemed to be pulling the strings and had broken into the cave for a very specific reason and they needed to know what he knew and why he did it. That meant figuring out what files he had accessed and where he was hiding.

“Were you able to get a general vicinity before he turned it off?” Dick asked coming up behind him. Unlike Tim, he and the rest of the family had changed out of their suits and into pajamas before they started the post mortem on their night.

“Of course,” he scoffed at the audacity of the doubt. “He didn’t turn it off that quickly. He’s somewhere in Paris.”

“He likely left it on so we would know where to start our search,” Bruce nodded knowingly. “Did he leave us any messages? 

“Just this note,” Tim motioned toward a section of the screen with a typed message, ‘You need to up your security. Your move, Bats.” Bruce sighed and rubbed his temples.

“What did he get?” Jason demanded from his spot leaning against a wall.

“A file on something called a ‘Miraculous’.” Tim responded.

“What the fuck is that?” Jason asked annoyed. Something had to make sense tonight, just one thing. Sooner or later, something had to make some fucking sense.

“I’m not sure. There isn’t much here. Or rather there is a lot here but only a small portion of it is in a known language. The part I can translate says the Miraculous are magic jewels that grant powers that are potentially devastating on a global scale. The rest is in a language that neither the computer nor I have ever seen. I’m running translation algorithms but not getting anything... yet” Tim answered distractedly, still trying to read as much as he could as he was talking. 

“It says they wield a lot of power. The League had plans a couple hundred years ago to try to steal them from something called ‘The Order of the Guardians’ but before they could enact their plan the Order’s compound was destroyed by an unknown force. The League surmised it was a power of the miraculous. They found no evidence of survivors or the miraculous. They were able to gather some texts from the ruins, scans of which is what is in the files, but without the miraculous themselves, it isn’t much good. There isn’t any translation offered so either we didn’t get that file from them, they weren’t able to translate it, or they gave up on trying to translate it.

Magic. Mother fucking Hell. There went any hope Jason had of anything making sense. Nothing ever made sense or went their fucking way when magic was involved.

“Any indication what that has to do with this girl or Paris?” Dick asked.

“None, but if I had to guess, which I do, I would say they are being used in Paris.” Tim responded.

“It isn’t like the League to give up, especially on something that could grant them power on a global scale.” Bruce noted.

“Agreed. And there would have been reference to a translation here if there was one, so they likely were never able to translate it.” Tim nodded.

“That isn’t a good sign for us.” Jason commented.

“They aren’t me. I’ll translate it. Give me a week.” Tim said confidently.

Dick stared at the video of the earlier events in the cave playing on the far side of the screen. “What do you think the odds are that the portal thing was somehow related to the Miraculous? She seemed to have to transform to use it.” Dick noted.

Bruce nodded, “Good point. Tim, go through the information in the files and the video and write up a summary,” Bruce ordered Tim. Turning to Jason he said, “What do you know about her?”

He snorted, oh now they fucking trusted his intuition. He thought through the night with her. She hadn’t said too much during the first part of the night, but he was a detective damn it, and a damn good one so he didn’t need words to figure someone out. She had been fidgeting, she took care of the sexual assaulter quickly and discretely but hadn’t tried to fight Jason when he grabbed her later, she helped cheer up the kid with him, she kept up with his banter, she had a brilliant smile and looked gorgeous when she blushed… that probably isn’t relevant… accurate but not helpful in this particular situation. She had figured them out after just observing them for a few minutes, she had cursed the hell out of Constantine and was damn sexy doing it, she said people were depending on her, she had somehow arranged a way to change her dress unnoticed with people around and looked hot as hell in both dresses. It all came together to help form a personality profile in his mind and make the room feel significantly warmer.

“Has Anxiety. Can protect herself but doesn’t like using violence. Kind. Witty. Creative. Smart, like Tim level smart. Dick Syndrome, shouldering the blame for everything that happens around her. Does not like being lied to or manipulated. Not wealthy. Don’t think she was invited and she definitely didn’t want to be there.” He listed off.

Tim nodded along with the last part using it to springboard into another way to track her and Constantine, “Likely acquired by someone else who gave it to her, probably Constantine. But since we would have recognized Constantine’s name and clearly he was trying to go under the radar on this, he asked someone else to get it.” He rolled the chair to the left and focused on a different monitor while starting the search for the list.

“Do we know if anyone asked for a ticket last minute?” Dick asked jumping on Tim’s train of thought. If they could figure out who Constantine was working with they could ask them questions, get some leads.

“I’ll look through the invitation list and see if anything stands out,” Tim responded.

“This seems like a waste of effort, whoever that is probably doesn’t know anything more than Constantine wanted a ticket,” Jason countered. Why was this the focus? The more important thing to focus on was what she said about Paris, not how she got in. 

“Whoever it is may be working with them as well and may know something. It’s worth at least a look,” Dick explained. “Anything else?”

Jason rolled his eyes, at least it meant they were looking into it and finally taking it seriously. “She said there has been a supervillain in Paris for the last 5 years. The data Constantine was getting was related to that. That data was supposed to help them fight the villain. She said people were counting on her, which makes me think she’s a hero there….” he turned toward the sound of Damian scoffing as he made his way into the cave. “And Alfred likes her better than Demon Spawn.” Jason smirked turning back towards the rest of the family.

“I will get my katana and gut you. I only just succeeded in calming Alfred enough to rest.” Damian glared at Jason. 

“Yeah, because he was upset he wasn’t still with her,” Jason snarked quietly, but loudly enough for his words to be heard by everyone in the cave.

Tim chortled from his spot at the computer, “she does seem to have a way with demonic creatures, doesn’t she? Constantine, Alfred… maybe we should send Demon Spawn to her too. She can tame the Hell Spawn.” He kept his focus on the computer as he made his comment missing Damian’s face shift from anger to rage. Jason snickered at the comment, pushing Damian over the edge after all the comments and events of the night. 

Damian jumped up from his chair to rush toward Jason, yelling something about a hussy and sullying. Honestly, Jason couldn’t make out his exact words. Tim only glanced back with the briefest of looks before returning to the computer. Damian attacking Jason was nothing new. It always ended with them getting separated before any real damage could be done and Jason chastised for defending himself because ‘Damian never meant to actually kill or seriously damage anyone during the attacks. It was more of a venting session for him’.

Damian lamented that he hadn’t prepared properly for a confrontation as he rushed toward Jason. He had prepared for bed, like the rest of the family and had left his katana and weapons in his room. The weapons he used for patrol were on the other side of the cave, too far away to be of use right now. But he was confident he didn’t need weapons to best Jason.

Damian jumped on the meeting table just at the last moment, using it as leverage to add height to the flying kick he sent towards Jason. Jason anticipated the kick, Damian had been dumb enough to announce his attack, expecting everyone to react as they normally did. What he didn’t anticipate, what none of them anticipated, was for Jason to not be in the fucking mood. This was a long night already and the only good part of it they were belittling and to top it off Damian was attacking him again and no matter how it ended, he was going to get in trouble for it.

Just as Damian’s foot was about to land on Jason’s face he pushed it to the side and twisted, redirecting Damian’s momentum, causing him to crash harmlessly to the floor. Damian jumped back up and ran at Jason. He threw a punch to his side just a beat too slowly. Jason twisted slightly again, just enough for the fist to fly past him then encouraged Damian’s momentum with a slight push of his own causing Damian to slam face first into the ground. When he stood back up, ready to try again they could hear Dick in the background starting to intercede but Jason was too pissed to listen or to back down peacefully and Damian was still looking for a way to vent his frustration. 

“Stand still you giant oaf,” Damian screamed at Jason, running at him again. Jason squared up against Damian and punched him in the center of his chest. Damian went down hard as all the air left his lungs. Before he could take a breath Jason pulled him up by the back of his shirt, bringing Damian’s face close to his own, “how many times do I have to tell you, don’t start a fight you can’t finish, Shorty” he hissed at him before letting him drop.

Dick was next to Damian before he hit the ground checking him to make sure he was okay. “What the hell, Jason! Was that really necessary? He wasn’t trying to hurt you. You didn’t have to hit him that hard. He was just letting off steam.”

“Then he should have gone after a practice dummy, not me. And he should stop acting like a little jealous, elitist bitch. I don’t understand why you dislike the galas so much, Damian, you’re right on track to be exactly like all those people there. And for the record, if I’d wanted to hurt him, his sternum would be shattered right now instead of just bruised.”

“How dare you, you dimwitted, boorish, buffoon!” Damian hissed out, still breathing heavily and unable to yell. “You’re so ready to defend that uncultured streetwalker over your own family. You have no loyalty and no honor.”

“Way to prove his point, Demon.” Tim muttered from the computer.

“Alright, enough,” Bruce glared at Jason and Damian. “We don’t have time for this. Jason and you too Tim, Damian is a kid. You’re adults. Stop baiting him.”

“Y’all are going to have to decide if he is a kid or a vigilante assassin because you seem to blur the lines a lot. Is he a kid or a tool to achieve your vengeance?” Jason seethed at the two older men in the room.

“As amusing as this show is and as much as I would _love_ to hear the answer to that question,” Tim interceded, “let’s bring the focus back to the matter at hand; Constantine exposing us and bringing a stranger into the cave. I started looking for evidence of heroes in Paris and whatever she may have told you, I can’t find any news on any villains or superheroes in Paris or even France. The only thing I have been able to find is a note on an official Paris city calendar about a Heroes Day to celebrate heroes. But, it doesn’t specify particular heroes though so it could be everyday heroes or even heroes anywhere on Earth. And we have to consider the very real possibility that she played Constantine. If there was anything going on in Paris, let alone for 5 years, we would be able to find _something_ , anything, but there is nothing.”

“Whatever else you want to say about him, Constantine is a good judge of people, when someone is playing an angle and when they are on the level, when that angle is really bad and when it’s just ‘bad’. He didn’t break in here and leave that message for no reason. The Miraculous is in play in Paris. We need to decide what we are going to do about that.” Jason retorted.

“That inept excuse for a hero clearly isn’t doing a proper job of handling it. We should intervene and handle it for her. Show her what a hero really looks like.” Damian responded snidely still hunched over a bit. Jason glared at him. 

“I’ve already taken you down once today, kid,” throwing the term in Damian’s face as a taunt, “I’ll do it again. And if you believe that, then you also believe there is something going on there. You’re admitting she was telling the truth.” Damian scoffed in response and looked away.

“We know almost nothing about the situation in Paris. The League’s notes said the Miraculous’ power could potentially affect the entire planet. At the very least, we should gather as much information as we can on it, talk to the heroes there if there are any, see what we can do to help.” Dick suggested calmly.

“Them,” Tim corrected. “The files indicated there is more than one miraculous.”

“And each one can affect the entire planet?” Bruce asked concerned.

“It is unclear from the data available.” Tim responded.

“Constantine’s phone was definitely in Paris, he left it on so we would know to go there. He’s too experienced to make that mistake. It was a clue about what our next step should be. We should follow it.” Dick observed.

“So we are deciding to do exactly as the deranged dullard wanted us to do and playing into his plans,” Damian muttered from his spot at the table. After everything that had happened that night they were going to just let him win. “Brilliant plan.”

“There is too much at stake to ignore it. We follow the leads we have. So we go plain clothes as reconnaissance, see what we can pick up by being there, but bring the suits so we can meet with the heroes there if we find something. Dick, you and Damian can stay here and watch over Gotham while we are gone.” Bruce ordered, standing up to end the conversation.

“I’m going too. Someone has to keep that wench from turning Todd against the rest of us.” Damian responded coldly.

Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. He was not in the mood to deal with this right now. There were too many unknowns. “Fine. I’ll ask Clark to be on call as backup for you Dick. The rest of us go to Paris tomorrow. Use the rest of today to get ready.”

“I’ll make the arrangements, Master Bruce.” Alfred announced from the doorway.


	4. What are Best Friends For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Miraculous Team finds out what happened at the Gala and start planning for the bat invasion.

Marinette’s eyes fluttered open after only a few hours of sleep. It wasn’t enough, but she hadn’t gotten enough sleep in years. At this point, she didn’t think her body would let her sleep a healthy amount, it was too programmed to go without. One day, after they defeated Hawkmoth and she had moved away from Paris, she was going to sleep for a week… after she cried for two weeks straight, or maybe she would alternate the two. She was going to buy the plushest bed she could afford, or likely Adrien could afford since she barely had enough money to cover groceries, and sleep in every single day in that bed.

Until then, rest was minimal and often, like last night, fitful to say the least. She had tried to calm down enough to sleep comfortably, but calming down actually seemed to be part of the problem. To make up for the adrenaline of the night before wearing off and her body calming, her mind started racing. With no immediate threats to deal with, anxiety was setting in and taking over, coming up with new and better things to worry about because fuck you, that’s why. Anxiety needs no reason. It certainly never had for her.

She quietly slid out of bed careful not to move too quickly and accidentally wake up Adrien or the kwamis. She walked out onto the balcony seeking the morning sun on her face, hoping the new day’s light might bring her some peace. She stared out at the morning colors blending from pink to orange to yellow to varying variants of blue. She scanned over the gorgeous colors until her mind caught on one particular shade of blue, reminding her of bright blue eyes filled with concern and determination. 

She twisted to face away from the sky and lean against the balcony grabbing it tightly and relaxing her grip over and over again. He said he wanted to help and she wanted to let him, which was ridiculous because he was Red Hood. He was the most violent of Gotham’s vigilantes. She didn’t know too much about the bats, that was Alya’s area, but she knew at least that much. He was the last one they should trust to help. So why was she still questioning it? Why did she feel like she could trust him? Her instincts on people were usually good, but he made her mind go haywire and she didn’t trust herself to be impartial when it came to him. 

“Argggg” she groaned running her hands over her face and fisting her hands in her hair. Everything felt wrong. She needed something to distract her anxiety so it wouldn’t take over completely and drag her down into a never-ending cycle of could-have and should-have and why-didn’t-I’s. More accurately, she needed to hit something, a lot and hard. She quietly changed into workout gear and quickly wrapped up her hands and feet before padding over to the sparring area. She stalked over to the dummy glaring at it like it was the cause of all of her problems. She started practicing as she ran through the prominent events from her previous night. 

_“You don’t seem excited to be here.”_ Jab.

 _“Well aren’t you a ray of sunshine_.” Jab. Jab.

 _“I’m Jason.”_ Jab. Hook.

 _“Wanna Dance?”_ Jab. Cross. Hook.

“ _Was the occasion to look stunning?”_ Jab. Jab. Palm strike. Knee.

 _“You’re Jason Todd.”_ Hook. Punch. Jab. Punch. Uppercut.

 _“I have to go.”_ Jab. Elbow strike. Palm strike.

“ _Are you okay?”_ Double side punch. Elbow strike.

 _“I can help_.” Kick. Knee. Kick.

“ _You left some valuable details out.”_ Side kick. Straight cross. Jab. Jab. Jab.

“ _You wanted me to meet the Waynes.”_ Jab. Jab. Right hook.

 _“You’re still a kid, you should have fun.”_ Double side punch. Crescent kick.

 _“I don’t enjoy Hell. DO NOT make me go back.”_ Jab. Hook kick. Straight cross.

 _“Change your mind?”_ Jab. Left hook. Crescent kick.

“ _Your life is supposed to be more than the fucking suit.”_ Palm strike. Elbow strike. Hook kick.

 _“Dramatic much?”_ Punch. Punch. Front kick leading to a back flip.

 _“That rule needs to be finessed.”_ Uppercut. Uppercut. Jab. Right hook.

 _“He can help.”_ Side kick. Elbow strike. Crescent kick. Jab.

 _“You kids really do need help.”_ Double side punch. Uppercut. Left hook.

 _“You won’t be able to move on.”_ Elbow strike. Jab. Uppercut.

 _“Think about what I said.”_ Knee. Palm strike. Jab.

 _“I can help.”_ Uppercut. Uppercut. Left hook. Right hook.

 _“I can help.”_ Hammer fist. Side kick. Knife hands. Back kick.

 _“I can help.”_ Roundhouse Kick. Jumping downward punch.

She let the velocity of the punch to carry her to the floor. She landed in a crouch and collapsed to her hands and knees panting for breath, sweat dripping on the floor pads. Instead of helping clear her head, the practice had just made everything worse. God, she was too tired to deal with this. She was too tired to think and this anxiety induced doubt was giving her a headache. She needed to think clearly, but she was too tired to think clearly, and until they defeated Hawkmoth she wouldn’t be able to get the sleep she so desperately needed, so… round and round she’d go, where she’d stop not even Hawkmoth knew. 

She fought the flinch that wanted appear when she heard shuffling near her and glanced up just enough to notice bare feet and the bottoms of Adrien’s pajamas as he crouched next to her. He had turned sneaking up on her into a game and despite knowing he wasn’t trying to do that this time, she _refused_ to give him that win. “Hey Marinette, you okay?” Adrien asked gently, his voice laced with concern as he laid a hand on her shoulder. 

Marinette nodded but continued looking down at the mat instead of at him, avoiding his eyes. She didn’t want to talk about the doubts her anxiety was pushing. The logical part of her brain knew that talking about her doubts would help her figure out what was really a concern and what was just the anxiety, which is exactly what she needed. But the illogical part of her brain, the part that anxiety had dominion over, thought that if she didn’t talk about it, she would be able to pretend like it never existed, that it would all dissolve like one of Alya’s illusions. And the illogical side knew that if she spoke her feelings out loud, that would speak them into existence, making them impossible to box up and bury somewhere until she was better equipped to ignore it, like after she died. And the illogical part _knew_ if she had to confront all her doubts right now she would die.

As is often the case, the illogical part of her brain was far more persuasive than the logical part, offering the comfort of avoidance rather than the terror of confrontation the logical part was pushing. But then again, Adrien always had a way of quieting the illogical part without even trying. All of her friends did.

“You want to talk about it? Or just want to keep imagining the dummy is Constantine and continue to beat the shit out of it?” Adrien prompted her with a gentle smile. She looked up at him as she stood back up on shaky legs.

She shook her head, “I’m wasn’t. I’m still deciding how upset I am with Constantine. I mean, we knew it was coming. I wasn’t expecting him to make us waste two weeks so he could do it though.” She growled bitterly as she grabbed a water bottle from the refrigerator and walked over to bench next to the sparring mat. She sat and let her breathing slow for a moment before continuing on.

“Don’t get me wrong. I was FURIOUS when I thought he did it to avoid an ex… and fuck, I might still be. I’m too tired to tell anymore.” She gave a tired sigh and ran her hand through her hair that was now plastered to her face. “But that’s not why he did it. He saw where we were going to end up and the asshole wanted to redirect us. He did it to protect us. And I… I would have done the same so… I don’t know. It seems like that should make a difference.”

“We are not fucking children. We don’t need that motherfucker protecting us. We know what we are doing and we are handling it just fine. There is no immediate threat that warranted that.” Adrien growled. He gave her a wicked smile, “And I am never too tired to be a vindictive dick.”

She rolled her eyes, “You’ve been spending too much time with Felix.” She looked away and gave a humorless chuckle. “Honestly? I expected it to be worse. I prepared for so much worse. I’m relieved this is all it was. I expected him to go directly to the Justice League or one of the other groups he works with and say something like ‘Hey, don’t go to Paris for… reasons. And don’t bring your full armory.’ Get them all involved. And that was if he didn’t just straight out tell them about what is going on.”

Adrien glared at her, “Seriously? He knew we didn’t want them involved and he did it anyway. He got them involved. We trusted him and he broke his promise to us. I don’t care why he did it or if it could have been worse, he did it.”

“But he didn’t break his promise,” she noted tiredly. “He orchestrated all of that for us so he wouldn’t break it… He bent his word just enough to keep from breaking it and making it unforgivable. But he still left us in control and is letting us make the decision for what happens next. He didn’t completely fuck us over and he easily could have.”

“We,” he motioned between them to indicate the two of them, “have _very_ different definitions of unforgivable. He didn’t keep his word. He did betray us. He manipulated us and the situation to bring in the Justice League. He did exactly what we told him not to do. He _ignored_ our decision so he could _take away_ control. We don’t control this, he caused it. And on top of everything else, we wasted two weeks so he could betray us. He could have at least had the decency to betray us without wasting our time.”

She shook her head, “No, he moved one piece in the sequence. One piece that allows the option to follow our current path OR choose a new one. We define the new path. It is up to us to decide if we will redirect the pieces back to the original path or let the new sequence take effect.”

“This is not dominoes.”

“It is. Dominoes, the butterfly effect, whatever you want to call it, that’s life. That’s everything that happens in our lives, everyone’s lives. One change now changes what happens in the future. You know that. And if you need a reminder, I’m sure Alix would be more than willing to go over it with you, how one decision changes _everything_. It is her job to identify the piece that will make the sequence turn out ideally.” Adrien growled at that but glanced away. She continued, “But he’s letting us decide to accept the help or not. He’s letting us decide the next move. He made his move, now it’s our turn.”

“So you’re just going to forgive him? Let him off for lying to us, manipulating us, allowing Paris to suffer while he played his little game of dominoes?” Adrien accused, voice rising as he did.

Marinette sighed deeply, looking down at nothing in particular, “No, I just… I guess I’m too tired to fight this particular fight. You are welcome to though. I won’t stop you from hanging him over the side of the building for a while. But, yeah… the time. The lost time. And the last few weeks were…” she paused letting out another long sigh, looking up to the ceiling and hitting her head gently on the wall as she remembered the events of the last few weeks, “well they would have happened regardless, but…” she tapered off, not sure how to finish the sentence.

“But the oncoming ones might not have to happen and you know with the way akumas and amoks have been going lately, they will probably be just as bad.” Adrien fumed. 

He looked over to her as he vented and finally noticed how tired she looked. He studied her closely. She looked like she had relaxed but he knew her well enough to know her tells, the slight tension in her shoulders, the minute tightening around her eyes, the slightly strained smile that nobody who didn’t know her would think was anything less than sincere. 

He was still upset with Constantine and he was definitely going to have a discussion with him next time he saw him, a discussion that involved a few of the moves Marinette had demonstrated on the dummy earlier. But his anger wasn’t helping Marinette and that was the primary focus for him. “But until then, we need to focus on preparing for the aftermath of Constantine’s intervention.”

“I’m not worried, it’s just Batman. We can handle him,” she gave him a smile that was meant to reassure but didn’t have the emotion behind it. “Thank God it isn’t the rest of them. Honestly, this is the best case scenario. It’s just the bats and now we know their real identities. That is going to massively enhance our intel on them. We can discover Bruce Wayne’s pressure points as well as Batman’s, and use them to get him to back off.”

Adrien nodded, “A project for Alya and Chloe. We can let them know when they come over later.” He noted she still hadn’t really relaxed. Her shoulders and smile still tense, so the Constantine issue wasn’t what was causing her to feel so distressed. “So, if this impromptu session isn’t about Constantine… Did something else happen last night? Was it that bad?”

She suddenly looked far more tired than she was a few moments before, her shoulders lowering into a slump. “No, the night was amazing actually,” she said quietly.

“So what's the problem? Why were you in here working out your frustrations instead of sleeping?”

“Because it was so amazing,” she sighed defeated. Logical finally defeated illogical as she started dumping everything she was feeling onto Adrien. “Because it was great. I was having fun and I really wanted to stay there. It made me want to have more. But I can't have that. _We_ can't have that,” she motioned between the two of them. “We can't even leave Paris,” she chuckled bitterly. “It was just a reminder that we’re stuck.”

“You know, we had the horse miraculous. You could go someplace else for school and then come back when you need to.” Adrien offered halfheartedly. He knew this argument. They’d had it enough to know she was right. She wouldn’t give in and neither would he. Neither of them would abandon the other to escape alone. They were both stuck. They didn’t really have any options until they defeated Hawkmoth. But it still felt good to say it out loud, pretend like they did. Sometimes it was her offering the escape options, sometimes it was him. But they both knew that neither of them would accept it.

“But then only one of us gets to escape and I’m not leaving you behind,” she looked him in the eye with a determined look to make sure he understood how serious he was. When he nodded at her letting her know he understood, she looked away to look at nothing. “I just, I feel like I can't move. Every move I make is wrong. I’m confined. I can’t do anything. Neither one of us can do anything. I can’t study fashion, you can’t study teaching. We can’t start our future. Hawkmoth won't let us. He’s keeping us right here, in this moment in time and we can’t break out of it.” She said tugging gently on her hair as she spoke. “And last night just reminded me of that. That I’m stuck here, that my priority isn’t me, can’t be me or my future… my happiness.”

He ran his hands over her shoulders and upper arms trying to bring her focus back to him, speaking in calm tones to ground her, “That’s what this whole thing was about though, wasn’t it? Why we let the bastard help in the first place… to tip the balance, to end this, to break out.” He smiled gently at her again continuing with the well-established script of this conversation.

“You know, if you can’t study fashion right now, maybe you can delay it. You can keep doing commissions and bulking up your portfolio,” she opened her mouth to object but he beat her to it, already knowing her response. “I could help you financially until this all is over. You could move in with me so you don’t have to pay rent. I can get an apartment with an extra room and an office you can use… and I can buy the groceries. You wouldn’t have to pay for anything. And when we defeat him, then you can go to school.”

“I’m not taking your money, Kitty. And your father would blow a gasket and probably cut you off unless you kicked me out.”

“I have money saved and I don't want to work there anyway. It's not my legacy. And we could get married, like I said before. Then he couldn’t object. And that way you’re not taking my money, you’re sharing it with me and you’d be my next of kin and have full access to my money whenever you needed it instead of having to ask me for everything. And yeah, we would kill each other after a few months, but it would be a lot of fun to pretend for a while.” He waggled his eyebrows at her making her laugh. “I could support you. We could be happy… you know, for a while.”

“You think getting married would make your dad _less_ likely to lash out and destroy both your happiness and my future?” She chuckled at him and looked off through the balcony doors, voice becoming wistful, “Even if he wasn’t an obstacle, you deserve to find someone that will make you really happy. Longer than I would. Someone you truly love. Someone that will make you feel safe and loved and valued with just a look. Someone that looks at you like you’re the most important person in the world. Someone who’s world lights up just by being near you. Someone who lights up your world. Someone who makes you feel like they would walk happily to the ends this world and the next to keep you safe,” she gave a small grin, “you know, someone who looks at you like Plagg looks at cheese.” 

He watched her as she studied something in the sky, eyes glassy with unshed tears, hands twisting around each other, and regret lacing her expression. “That guy really got to you didn’t he?”

She looked back at him surprised. “Yeah,” she breathed out, looking back at the sky, “which is stupid because I only knew him for like an hour and I won’t ever see him again, except to kick him out of Paris whenever they come here. I should just move on but… everything is stupid. I’m stupid.”

He nodded, “Maybe,” he started until he felt the punch to his shoulder.

“The fuck Chaton!” Marinette exclaimed. “This is your pep talk? You need to work on your motivation thing. Triangle, bitch, study.”

He doubled over laughing when she stuck her tongue out at him. It took a few minutes before he could calm down and his expression turned soft again. “I meant maybe you should move on because you barely know him, BUT I think sometimes you just _know_ that someone is going to have a huge impact on your life. We knew it when we met. You knew it when you met Alya. I knew it when I met Nino. Maybe your instincts are telling you something your anxiety doesn’t want to hear. Your instincts have always been right and they’ve only gotten stronger. I trust them.” He paused to give her the most sincere look he could, “I trust _you_. You should, too.”

Marinette smiled at him eyes shining with gratitude, “I love you, you goofball.”

“I know. I love you too,” he said with a smug smile. “Is that a yes to getting married?”

“You know, there is absolutely no reason we would have to get married. We could just be roommates.”

“Yeah, but I really, really want to see the look on my Dad’s face if we did. Do you think he would have an aneurism?” she rolled her eyes and shoved him away.

“Oh my god, what ancient, vindictive god did I piss off to end up with you in my life?” 

“Plagg, it had to be Plagg” Adrien said giggling.

He pulled her in for a tight hug but jumped back from her. “Oh ew gross. You’re still sweaty. Go take a shower and then take a nap. The others won’t be here for a few hours. You have time,” he shoved her away to get cleaned up before the rest of their team appeared for a debriefing on the mission. “Also, I am absolutely telling Chloe and Alya about the boy if you don’t.”

She glared at him “You wouldn’t” she hissed at him.

“Oh I would and will. I’m not dealing with either of them if they find out I knew and didn’t tell them.”

“You better watch it, Kitty. I’ll take you up on that marriage offer and make your life absolutely fucking _miserable_.” She lobbed her water bottle at him, getting up to take a shower.

<><><><><>

A few hours later after a peaceful but still too short nap, Alya and Nino joined Marinette and Adrien in the Base to hang out and do a post mortem on the night before. They were snacking and chatting idly about the week to come, enjoying the kind of relaxed atmosphere they hadn’t been allowed for the past few weeks while they had planned for the gala mission, the discussion of which they were intentionally avoiding until Chloe could get there. They were in the middle of discussing Nino’s upcoming nightclub gig when Marinette’s phone started ringing. Seeing Chloe’s name pop up on the screen, Marinette answered and put the phone on speaker, “Hey Chlo, what’s up? You on your way up.”

Marinette jerked back and nearly dropped the phone at Chloe’s shriek, “What the hell did you do at that gala, Dupain-Cheng?” 

Adrien’s face split into a giddy grin and he yelled back from his spot in a nearby chair, “No one yet, but give her and that Wayne kid a few days and that may change.” Marinette spluttered before glaring at him.

“Chaton…” she gritted out threateningly.

“Dupain-Cheng bagged a Wayne?” Chloe shrieked even louder, making Marinette bring her hands up to plug her ears and wiggle them around trying to get the sudden ringing to stop.

“Wait what?! Why aren’t we talking about this already?” Alya gasped offended that she didn’t already know all the details.

“No I haven't... we didn’t… I didn’t bag anything.” Marinette corrected with a glare to Adrien.

“Don’t worry Dudette, I have faith in you,” Nino offered with both finger guns and a sarcastic grin. “You will.” Marinette stuck her tongue out and threw a handful of chips at him in retaliation.

“Bitch, I TOLD you what would happen if you wore that dress and those shoes. Do not EVER doubt me again. I am a goddamned Godsend to you people. You don’t deserve my presence let alone my guidance in your lives.” Chloe sneered haughtily. 

Marinette rolled her eyes trying to keep a straight face as Alya silently mocked Chloe. Nino was having a significantly less successful time, his muffled giggles bubbling out from behind the pillow he was holding over his face. “Okay, you’re a gift from the gods, now what happened?” Marinette inquired.

“The manager just told me the Waynes called this morning to book the rest of the penthouse suites on our floor for a week starting tomorrow.” Chloe hissed. “Wouldn’t have anything to do with your illicit activities last night would it?” Marinette could feel Chloe’s raised eyebrow and the hand on her cocked hip through the phone. “Or I guess maybe it was your more licit activities that got their interest.”

“Fuuuuuck, we have until tomorrow then,” she groaned and looked over to Adrien with a cringe.

“We have until tomorrow for what? What the hell happened? What did you do? Wait, did Lady Luck get lucky?” Alya asked grinning at the impending chaos.

Marinette huffed and threw chips at her too, “Back off, Als. Your Trixx is showing.” Trixx floated up next to her chosen and smiled, patting her on the head. “And proud of you, Kit.” Alya grinned from the praise as though it didn’t prove Marinette’s point.

“See, I knew my faith in you was justified,” Nino grinned at Marinette.

“Nino, I have more chips and I’m not afraid to use them,” Marinette threatened.

“Whatever, I’m coming right up. Don’t you _dare_ tell that story until I get there. And pick up any chips you threw Dupain-Cheng!” Chloe ordered, hanging up before Marinette could respond.

As soon as the call ended, Alya turned to Marinette eagerly, “Okay, she’s off the phone, now spill.”

“I’m not spilling anything until Chloe gets here. I’m not dealing with Pissed Off Chloe,” Marinette deferred. It was a convenient excuse and gave her time she needed to figure out how to phrase things so she didn’t have to admit more than they absolutely needed to know. And absolutely NOT discuss Jason. There were far more significant issues to discuss, less handsome, but more significant. 

“Okay, while we wait for her to get here, tell me one thing,” Alya interrupted her plotting to stare her down, “did you or did you not have to enact the Escape Plan version of your dress?”

Marinette groaned and rubbed her hands over her face. She had a feeling she was going to be doing that a lot during the upcoming conversation. “Do we have alcohol? Is it too early to start drinking?” she gave Adrien a pleading look.

“Yes it is and yes she did,” Adrien interjected.

“Shit,” Nino whispered. “That can’t be good. Maybe you should rethink that alcohol ban, dude.” He patted Marinette’s knee comfortingly. “Did you at least get the files we were hoping for?” 

“Yeah. We at least got that out of last night,” Marinette said with a tired smile. “I’ll start working on the translation today, see how worth it the mission was.”

Before anyone could respond, the suite door slammed open and shut again as Chloe stormed in. “What the fuck, Dupain-Cheng?”

“Oh good, she’s here,” Alya jumped in. “Chloe sit your prissy ass down so we can start.”

“Excuse you, I believe you meant sit my amazingly toned, prissy ass down, thank you very much.” Chloe huffed, plopping down on top of Alya.

“Clearly what I meant, sweet cheeks,” she waggled her eyebrows at Chloe who rolled her eyes in response. “Now get if off me. I’m not a chair,” Alya complained, unceremoniously dumping Chloe on the floor and completely ignoring her offended squawk before she moved to sprawl across an arm chair instead. “Okay Chloe’s here, now spill.”

“I will,” not if she could help it she wouldn’t, “but first we need to brace for Batman and the batfamily to arrive in Paris.” Marinette warned them, not at all trying to deflect the conversation.

“What do you mean Batman? How did he find out?” Nino asked confused.

Marinette huffed out a sigh, looking up to the ceiling for inspiration. With Alya’s interruption she hadn’t had time to think of what to say. What was the least incriminating way to say what happened without flat out lying? “They saw us in the cave, or rather there was surveillance which I’m sure they were monitoring. They had to have heard Constantine talking to me. He didn’t say anything specific, but enough. Enough for them to know something is happening here.” Adrien gave her a deadpan look and raised an unamused eyebrow at her. She narrowed her eyes back at him and wrinkled her nose in defiance. She wasn’t going there unless she had to and so far, she didn’t have to. They were going to have to drag her into that conversation kicking and screaming.

“What does that have to do with Bruce Wayne?” Chloe asked annoyed by the seeming non-sequitur.

“Bruce Wayne is Batman.” Adrien said.

“Fuck! NO WAY! Really?” Nino yelled excitedly, “Dude, that is so cool!” 

“No wonder Batman has so many gadgets, he has his company and billions of dollars make them.” Alya reasoned. “God, how did nobody figure that out before? Of course he is, where else would he get all those vehicles and gadgets?”

“Right,” Adrien said nodding solemnly to them, “so, we’re going to need you two,” he said indicating Alya and Chloe, “to do a workup on them, both sides of the mask. I know you already know everything there is to know about the Bats, Alya, but now we know their real identities which means you can do the same for the Waynes, or at least you and Chloe can. The rest of us don’t need to know the details, at least not yet. Right now, we just need to know what their pressure points are, their weaknesses, what makes them tick, what drives them, what scares them, and what makes them go haywire. They’re coming here for a confrontation. We want to make this a onetime thing and we need to know the buttons to push to make that happen.”

“On it. I’ll start compiling information and get the start of it to you tonight so you can start the profile,” she nodded toward Chloe giving her a sly wink before she turned back to Adrien with an exaggerated innocent expression, “… but I have a ton of calculus I need to get done for school tomorrow, too. I’ll need your help for that, Sunshine.” 

Adrien rolled his eyes. “That worked out conveniently for you. Were you hoping something would come up and that’s why you waited to do it?”

She shrugged, the mask of false innocence starting to falter as she struggled to contain a smug grin, “Maybe. And the fact that something always comes up when you two are involved has absolutely no bearing on this conversation.”

“Are you going to make me do your physics homework too?” he snarked back at her.

“…physics homework?” Nino exclaimed.

“Oooh, yeah, what did you get for number 13 on that? I spent an hour and couldn’t figure it out.” Chloe asked. “Got the criminal psych homework done though if anyone needs it.”

“Don’t need that but I will take you up on that physics homework offer, Sunshine. Thanks for volunteering.” Alya responded with a smirk.

Marinette rubbed her temples, “It’s like herding cats,” she muttered to herself.

“Want me to try the same thing with them that Tikki and I did to the cat?” Trixx asked with a grin, suddenly appearing at her shoulder, munching on a piece of fruit as they did lazy summersaults in the air.

“No, that would just distract them more. Plus if they aren’t pursuing the Jason thing, I’m not going to push it.” She sighed at the kwami before closing her eyes and resting her head on the back of the couch, making her miss the kwami smirking and floating over to whisper something in Alya’s ear. 

“Yes, let’s get back to the immanent bat invasion,” Alya fixed Marinette with a wicked grin. “Let’s start with you bagging a bat. Does that have anything to do with them coming?” 

Marinette groaned and hit her head on the back of the couch. She glanced over at Alya to find both her and Trixx looking at her with matching devious expressions. She glowered at Trixx and muttered “Traitor” none too quietly, which only made Trixx’s grin widen. She tried to come up with a way to redirect them to something else. Anything else at this point. “Not the part I wanted to focus on…” she started only to be interrupted by Chloe.

“Oh, I’m sure. But it’s definitely what we want more details on Dupain-Cheng. Because as I recall, your goal was to NOT get noticed. And yet, a few hours later, here we are with reservations for an entire floor… almost, by the very people who were not supposed to notice you. Not that we don’t appreciate the revenue,” Chloe admonished with no heat behind it.

“They deserve to hear the rest.” Adrien shrugged at her, a smug smile pulling at his lips.

“Nothing happened,” Marinette exclaimed.

“But she wanted it to,” Adrien singsonged with a smile. Marinette threw the rest of her bowl of chips at him. “Not helping, Chaton.” She growled at him.

“Depends on which side you’re on,” he smirked.

“Bitch, I did not let you borrow my Jimmy Choo’s to NOT hear details,” Chloe demanded. “You somehow ended up with a Wayne, and you got their attention enough for the entire family to drop everything and come running. I want to know every sordid detail. If there aren’t any make them up. I want dirty!”

Alya shot her a concerned look, “You okay fam?”

Chloe huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, “No, but whatever. I’ll deal with that later myself.”

“Oh god, Chloe. Could you not! I already had to listen to Constantine. I don’t need you adding to my nightmares tonight.” Adrien objected.

“You couldn’t handle me, sweetie,” she sneered at him. “But, let’s focus on Marinette honeypotting a Wayne.”

She sputtered, “I did not honeypot him. I… I have no idea what that is, but that is NOT what I did,” she defended herself before giving into her curiosity, “What is honey potting?”

“It’s when… Holy shit, Chloe,” Adrien realized, shocked. He started laughing loudly. “You’re a genius. You don’t even know anything that happened and you still figured out that’s exactly what Constantine did.”

“Don’t sound so surprised, Adrikins. I have skills.” Chloe boasted confidently. “Marinette?”

“Are you interested in the honeypot thing or me almost breaking a man’s wrist for trying to stick it up my skirt?” Marinette offered instead.

“… uh, yeah that one. I want to hear about that.” Nino answered, suddenly much more concerned about the night.

“So…” Marinette started. But before she could get more than that out Chloe interrupted her, “Those skills include noting when a conversation has been redirected. You were about to discuss your honeypotting experience, Marinette.”

Marinette groaned. She was so close to getting away with it. So very close. Damn Chloe. “I want it noted for the record that I still don’t know what that word means. And the wrist thing really did happen.” She eyed Chloe and Adrien before continuing, “I needed cover to get into a better position to watch the Waynes…” she glared at a cackling Adrien who was being spurred on by Plagg grumbling “needed” while Tikki tried to shush them. “SO,” she announced over them, “I danced with someone who was definitely not one of the people we went over in our meetings. There was no briefing on him and I know because I sure as fuck would have remembered. I mentioned a supervillain to him because I was stupid and not thinking and commiserating about living in a city with supervillains. I didn’t think it would get back to Batman. I didn’t think there was any way it could. What are the odds? But I forgot my luck outside of the suit.” She glared at Tikki who winced.

“Luck doesn’t always give you what you think you need. It is about the right person getting the right thing at the exact right time.” Tikki said carefully. Marinette rolled her eyes. 

“It never gives me what I think I need. Never, not once have I actually gotten like, a hammer when I needed to break something open to get to an akuma. Noooo, I get a leaf of lettuce that I have to use in addition to 19 more steps in order to get to the akumatized item. Meanwhile, this asshole,” she indicated Adrien who gave an offended scoff, “gets a screwdriver when we need to unscrew something. What is that about?”

“The path to your destiny is sometimes complicated,” Tikki offered weakly floating back slightly so she was behind Plagg and Wayzz. The latter of whom decided to risk his immortality by adding, “And often the trials on the journey to your destiny teach you exactly what you need in order to achieve it.” Marinette fixed him with a glare so potent the mini god slunk away, hiding behind Nino.

“Anyway,” Marinette turned her glare from Wayzz to look back at the humans in the room. “Turns out the dead Wayne son isn’t so dead. He’s very much alive and dancing at galas with women who were supposed to go undetected by the Waynes. AND he’s one of the bats. So the man I was commiserating with, the one I let my guard down for one moment to, was a bat. So now Bruce Wayne, Batman knows. Because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut for one fucking night.”

“Marinette, you okay? It doesn’t sound like nothing happened.” Nino asked gently moving to next to her and wrap an arm around her.

“Nothing happened and nothing is going to happen because he's an American vigilante, a bat, and a violent one who can't be allowed to stay here and I can't leave. So it doesn't matter if I had fun with him. It doesn't matter if we danced and flirted. It doesn't matter if he was handsome and charming and sweet and protective with a soft spot for kids. It doesn't matter if the way he looked at me made me feel happy and protected and lighter. Because I have to be here and he can't be.” Well shit she groaned to herself. That was significantly more than she meant to say. As it turns out, they didn’t have to drag her kicking and screaming into the conversation. They just had to give her room to saunter her own ass into it.

Alya scooted over to the other side of her and hugged her, “Oh, Marinette.”

“Until we take down Hawkmoth,” Nino nodded solemnly.

“Well that’s ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. We make an exception and let the one she wants to bang into the country.” Chloe scoffed as though it were the most obvious solution.

Marinette looked up at her in shock and chuckled lightly, “if that’s the requirement, we’ll have to let the oldest son into the country too so Adrien can get a shot at him.”

“No, you need it more than him. He can wait until we kick Hawkmoth’s ass.” She looked over at Adrien with only the slightest hint of sympathy “sorry Adrikins.”

“You only say that because you haven’t seen the oldest.”

“No, I have. He’ll still be there after we win. You can embarrass yourself in front of him then.”

Adrien pouted at her. “I could bag him. I have skills, too.”

“Sure you could Romeo,” Nino said getting up and patting Adrien on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s move this party to Chloe’s room. We can order lunch and start on the homework for Alya and Marinette.” Nino ushered them towards the door.

“Why the hell am I doing homework for Marinette?” Chloe groused.

“Oh right you weren’t here yet, Dudette. Marinette needs to start translating the files.” Nino explained, swinging an arm around Chloe’s shoulders.

“You guys go ahead, we’ll be right there,” Alya called out to them, reaching out to hold Marinette back.

Alya waited until they were gone before moving to sit on the armrest on the couch. She stared at Marinette seriously, “So, spill girl.”

“I already told you about the night. What more do you want?” Marinette asked defeated.

“No, you told them. Now tell me. There is speaking with friend honesty and then there is best friend honesty. I want the best friend honesty. What was your boy like?” she prompted Marinette. Marinette looked so defeated. She needed Marinette to remember the more fun parts of the night, the parts that reminded them that they were still teenagers under their suits and responsibilities. She wanted to get Marinette’s mind off of the negative and what was to come, to focus on being happy for once, and tease out what impact this boy had on her best friend. Which, knowing her best friend, she was going to try to suppress for the safety of Paris. God, she hated Hawkmoth for so very many things but this was at the top of the list, the impact he had on everyone’s mentality, especially Marinette’s. 

“Alya,” Marinette sighed, “I haven’t assessed him yet.”

“No! I want Marinette’s reaction not Ladybug’s.” Alya chided her.

“We’re the same person, Alya.” Marinette rolled her eyes.

“Yes but with different priorities and insights. I want Marinette’s insights. No guilt, no responsibilities, no angst, not what went wrong, not what you could have done better. Just the fun part, the teenage girl perspective. What. Was. He. Like?” she poked Marinette with her foot after each word to accentuate the question.

Marinette sighed again but Alya could see the glint of a smile on her lips as she thought through the night with him. The prominent details flashing in Marinette’s mind. “He was sweet. He was clever. Kind. Mischievous. He doesn’t like pretense. He likes blunt, honest. Knows how to handle himself. He stopped to help a kid, Alya, a kid. Really protective of kids. Respectful. Gentle. He has the most brilliant eyes and heartwarming smile and he focused on me the entire time, like nothing else mattered.” She looked off at nothing and cocked her head to the side. A sad expression suddenly appeared on her face. “He’s Red Hood, you know the scary one. But he was so gentle and sweet. How do I reconcile that?”

“No, I said no angst. We’re not reconciling anything right now. We’re not going to discuss that he stopped killing a while ago and that is why he is working with Batman.” She snuck into the conversation. As the group’s expert on superheroes, she could give Marinette a lengthy, highly detailed essay on each of the Bats, their history, and speculations about them, but she wasn’t ready to discuss Red Hood’s history with Marinette and Marinette wasn’t ready to hear it yet. She would go over it with Chloe later and they would distill it to the bare basics Marinette needed to know before facing them tomorrow. Today, they focus on the good. Tomorrow they focus on Paris. “Instead, we’re going to focus on the fact that he’s a good guy now who made you very happy for a while last night. So, what does this good guy look like?”

Marinette paused to consider what Alya had said. “Nope,” Alya threw a nearby pillow at her head, “not now. There will be plenty of time for that later, after you’ve gotten your work for tomorrow done, eaten something other than chips, and slept a human amount of time. Now. What. Does. He. Look. Like?” She poked Marinette with her foot after each word again to push her into answering. 

Marinette grabbed her foot on the last word and glared at her. “God, why are you such a bitch?”

“You love me and if I don’t worry about you doing those things, you won’t do them. Now answer before I have to kick you again. I’ll do it.” Alya threatened with a mock glare, her foot raised slightly, ready to kick.

Marinette rolled her eyes and shoved her best friend’s foot back at her. She knew exactly what Alya was doing, it’s the same thing she does for her when Alya gets too caught up in a self-deprecating spiral, but she needed something to smile about so she went with it. She looked to the side, focusing on nothing while she tried to think of how to describe his looks. “Tall,” she nodded absentmindedly as she continued, “He was very tall with dark hair and blue eyes, a sharp jaw and broad shoulders. He had a shock of white hair at the front that was begging to be touched.” She absentmindedly touched her bangs in the same place his streak was and stared off into space with a dreamy look on her face. “He had this smile that made you weak in the knees. His eyes sparkled when he was talking to me until he discovered why I was there and then they were filled with such sincere concern that took your breath away.”

“He was that good looking, huh?” Alya asked with an amused raised brow.

“Come on Alya, it wasn't just the looks, the personality too,” Marinette admonished her.

“Right, right. Of course...” Alya nodded seriously, “but...” she prompted Marinette to continue.

“He was sexier than Adonis and Henry Cavill’s lovechild, with a personality to match.” Marinette said with a deadly serious expression.

Alya stared at her amused and opened her mouth to speak but Marinette continued, “One look melted ice the next town over.” Alya beamed at her excitement. “He is the sexiest thing I think I’ve ever seen, and one of my best friends is an actual supermodel who hangs out with other supermodels. And this ice meltingly sexy Advill lovechild looked at me like I made his life complete.”

“So you wanted to kiss him?” she teased her friend with a knowing glint in her eyes.

“I wanted to rip his clothes off with my teeth,” Marinette corrected.

Alya balked at the unexpected admission before doubling over with raucous laughter. Her laughter got louder as Marinette joined her. Alya gasped for air but she couldn’t catch her breath which made her laugh harder until she was laughing so hard she fell backwards off the armrest landing on the floor with a resounding thump, causing them both to laugh even harder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: was one of those sequences stolen directly from Big Hero 6? Yes, yes it was.
> 
> And the golden triangle comment is absolutely from Suicide Squad. I was going to have Adrien comment about the movie but then I realized that is a DC movie so it probably doesn’t exist in this universe.
> 
> Also, I am letting everyone keep their original miraculouses just with a redesign because you know they will find a way to do it in the show so let’s pretend I’m following the same premise that they use to allow it.


	5. A Treasure Trove of Insecurities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The bats are in Paris and the Miraculous team is preparing for them.

Marinette laid on Nino’s living room floor studying the stolen Grimoire files on her tablet. She had been staring at the same page for the last two hours, making little progress. Just because she _could_ translate the ancient text, it didn’t mean it was easy or quick. In fact, it was headache inducing and with Adrien focusing on keeping them caught up on homework while she and Chloe were otherwise occupied, she was translating alone. She knew there were amazing secrets held in the texts, the drawings promised amazing new powers for each of the miraculous, she just needed to decode them. 

She scrunched her eyes closed and rubbed them to clear her vision that had started crossing. Now, she decided, was a perfect time to take a break. She looked around the room for a distraction. Adrien was near her on the floor, leaning against the couch and working on the physics assignment they had received that day, having already finished the calculus assignment. Alya, having already passed her research onto Chloe, was on the couch working on the French Lit homework. Nino was sprawled out on the couch with his feet propped up on Alya’s lap, not working on anything, staring off into space with a furrowed brow instead. 

Everyone was working quietly except for Chloe who was making her discontent with her surroundings abundantly clear through her frequent huffs and exaggerated movements. She was sitting in a chair making notes in a notebook referencing her laptop occasionally. She huffed and wiggled uncomfortably in the chair, “Tell me again why we have to do this here?” Chloe demanded, not bothering to mask her disgust with the middle class surroundings.

“We can’t meet in the hotel because we can’t take the chance the Waynes would see Marinette walking in the lobby or the hallway. We can’t meet at Adrien’s place because Asshole Dad. We can’t meet at Marinette’s in case they’ve made her already. That leaves my place or here and my place has the twins who are currently both grounded and bored so… that leaves here.” Alya explained calmly, not bothering to look up from her homework.

“Yeah, yeah, but couldn’t we have met at like a nice café or pub?” Chloe whined, rubbing her arms as though contact with the chair fabric were scratching her.

“And take the texts outside?” Adrien asked with a raised brow motioning toward Marinette.

“Plus until we know how much they know, it is probably best I’m not seen out more than absolutely necessary, hence the…” she indicated the oversized hoodie she had stolen from Kim some time ago she had been wearing all day, mostly with her hood up, completely enveloping her head.

“I thought that was so you could hide from Laurence…” Alya said with a sly grin.

“Or Noelle,” Adrien threw in.

“Or Ignace…” Chloe added, keeping her focus on her laptop.

“Okay stop. Really, Chloe? Wouldn’t you much rather talk about the throngs of people throwing themselves at you?” Marinette attempted to divert her to one of her favorite topics, herself.

“Oh sweetie, we don’t have that kind of time.” Chloe said throwing her ponytail over her shoulder. “We’re just talking about the ten or twenty we know about willing to let you tie them up and beat them like a piñata then thank you for the privilege.”

“That sounds like a regular Saturday night for you, Chlo,” Alya grinned.

“I…I don’t know how to react to that.” Marinette scrunched her face in confusion. “My first inclination is to say she’s exaggerating, but it’s Chloe and if anything she would underplay it. Plus I am extremely not happy with _that_ little insight into Chloe’s bedroom, so… I’m going to ignore this entire conversation.” Marinette said turning back to her tablet.

Adrien looked up from his notes for a few moments staring in thought at nothing, “Valid,” he nodded, turning back to his work as well.

Nino had stayed silent throughout the conversation staring instead unfocused at a spot on the floor for the past few minutes. Adrien glanced back at him with curiosity. “Hey,” he smacked his hand into Nino’s leg, “you okay there? You completely missed us teasing Marinette about her fans. That’s one of your favorite topics.”

“Ahhh, Laurence… yeah, that dude makes me nervous. Michel is cute though. I could see that.” Marinette gave an affronted squawk. Nino continued without acknowledging her, “No, I was just thinking… we know Batman’s secret identity.”

“Yeah,” Adrien said uncertainly.

“And he _doesn’t_ know ours.” Nino continued.

“Right,” Adrien encouraged still not sure where the conversation was going.

“And we have you and Chloe, both pretty famous and could easily end up at a party or event with at least one of them…” Nino mused thinking out loud.

“True.”

“So… how much can we mess with him about it without getting killed?” Nino asked raising his brow with a playful glint in his eyes.

“Dude!” Adrien exclaimed excitedly, his eyes lighting up at the thought.

“You want us to prank the Dark Knight?” Alya looked at him like he was crazy.

“Really?” Marinette deadpanned.

“Yeah, you’re right. It is potentially fraught with danger. We might need to bring Alix and Max in on this.” Nino nodded still thinking about how he could manage it.

Alya dropped her head into her hands, “Idiot.” She muttered shaking her head in her hands, not entirely sure if he was joking or not. Honestly, either option was possible.

“Well, that makes you two perfect for each other,” Chloe deadpanned still focused on writing something down in her notebook missing the withering look Alya shot her.

“Okay Kim,” Marinette rolled her eyes at Nino. She looked uncertain for a moment then pushed herself back until she was sitting on her heels and spoke hesitantly, “Or… we could discuss if we are still certain we don’t want the Batfamily here. Are we sure we don’t want their help?”

“Yes, yes we are,” Alya replied, her voice bordering on disbelief that Marinette would even ask. “We know what the Justice League is like. We know what they’ve done and we have a damn good idea what they could do given half the chance. We gave in on Constantine and look what happened. We cannot trust them.”

“Think about the last few weeks, Marinette. Think how much worse they would have been if those people had powers to begin with and understood the extent of their powers, how to push them, how to exploit them. What to ask for from Hawkmoth to do the most damage?” Nino added.

“The bats don’t have superpowers.” Marinette defended.

“But they work with people who do. They have strategized attack plans around people who have powers. They understand them and what’s most effective…” Chloe added barely looking up from her notepad.

“And they are incredibly well trained in combat and strategic planning… It would be hard enough without them having super powers. With them, we would be fucked.” Adrien added cutting in on Chloe’s statement.

“We are barely keeping up as it is. If one of the bats of Justice League were to get akumatized…” Nino let the statement trail off, allowing everyone to use their imagination to fill in the rest.

“Exactly! We are barely keeping up. Do we need to consider getting help? From someone with more experience and different skills? From someone with experience using superpowers against an opponent?” Marinette ran a hand over her face, “I’m just… I’m getting scared. And I don’t know if that is because I’m seeing a pattern or if I’m just frustrated with where we are and desperate for any change. And the more distance I have from it, the more I wonder if Constantine was right. Is it time to bring someone in, but we’re just too scared to try something different?”

“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by a banal, obvious statement,” she glared at Adrien, “they have a good understanding of powers, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to strategize around them, which would make them powerful akumas, _or_ incredibly advantageous assets against an akuma.” Everyone stared at her in surprise. “Stunned looks terrible on you.” She said making clear she was directing it to all of them. “The silent awe of me is appropriate though.” She said sitting back in her chair only to immediately grunt and start squirming against the fabric again.

“It isn’t just the powers, I don’t trust them, especially Batman. If we give them half the chance, I’m afraid they will try to take the miraculous because they think they could wield them and protect them better.” Adrien admitted. 

The group took a second to let both sides of the argument sink in, unsure how to move forward. Both outcomes could lead to horrific outcomes that nobody wanted to allow. They were all afraid and they knew they were, but like Marinette, they didn’t know if the fear was holding them back from making a mistake or from having a breakthrough.

After a few moments of quiet, Nino broke the quiet in a soothing voice, “We have no way to know which way things will tilt. Let’s see what we get from the files and reassess then. No reason to introduce more chaos until we know what we have to work with already. Have you found anything yet?”

“A bit. Ugh,” she said accepting the change of topic and looking at her notebook with disgust, “this would be so much easier if the kwamis could just tell us all the possible uses of the miraculous were and the ways they could be combined.”

“Yeah, but then Hawkmoth would have known too… and Mayura and Argus.” Tikki pointed out.

“That’s a horrifying thought. I don’t think we could have taken Hawkmoth and Mayura when we started if they had known all their options.” Adrien shuttered thinking about it.

“That’s why they created the rule that kwami could only tell the very basic powers and responsibilities. Anything more than that can only come from the Order, so if anyone stole a miraculous, they wouldn’t be able to effectively wield it, making it easier for trained wielders to get it back.” Trixx said.

“A bit more effective back when there was an Order and masters who actually trained wielders, but you know, times change,” Plagg shrugged with a thinly disguised disgust.

“Okay but let me just say not having known this,” Marinette turned the tablet around for them to see the image of the dragon miraculous she had been studying, “was an option is extremely upsetting.”

“Dibs!” Nino called out, jumping up from the couch before anyone else could call it.

“Fuck you, I saw it first. I’ve got dibs. I’ve got plans for it.” Marinette blew him off.

“No way, you’re going to see all of them first.” Nino pouted.

Marinette grinned at him, “Guardian” she singsonged. 

Trixx floated up closer to the tablet. “Oh that one. Yeah, everyone likes that one. It’s actually just a variation of the power you know already so it is a lot easier to pick up than it looks.”

Plagg floated next to her to check it out too. “If you like that one, just wait until you find out about…” his sentence was cut off by an overflow of green bubbles falling out of his mouth, causing him to glare at nothing and everything at the same time.

“Okay enough of that. My turn.” Chloe announced turning her laptop to display pictures of each of the Waynes and their alter egos.

Adrien leaned forward to get a closer look at the images and suddenly his eyes got huge and he gasped, “Oh my God… in the name of all that is holy and good in this world, _please_ tell me the one in the godawful, Red Skull wannabe mask is the one you were making heart eyes at all night. Please, please, please…” Adrien begged Marinette.

Marinette refused to meet his eyes and pursed her lips, focusing intently on the laptop. “No comment.”

“It _is_ him! Can I please, please be there when you ‘discuss’ that mask with him before we kick him out?” Adrien said shaking with delight at the thought of it.

Marinette glared at him, “We are going to be focusing on getting them out of Paris without drawing further curiosity or ire, not their wardrobe.” She pointed out turning to Chloe with an expectant look trying to prompt her to continue but couldn’t stop herself from whipping back toward Adrien, “And, I don’t even know if he was even interested in me at all. It’s far more likely they are concerned about the situation than he is about getting a date.”

Chloe rolled her eyes, “You’re not that stupid, Dupain-Cheng. The honeypotting wouldn’t have worked if he wasn’t interested.”

“I did NOT honeypot him…. And _I still don’t know what that means_!” Marinette yelled exasperated.

“Yeah, yeah. But I get to be there right?” Adrien implored ignoring her annoyance and still not giving her a definition. At this point, it was a matter of pride… or comedy. Either way, he was dedicated to _never_ telling her what it meant.

“Oooooo and me too,” Alya jumped in.

“You should just leave your com on so we can all hear.” Chloe commented with feigned disinterest.

“We should put it on speaker. The kwamis will want to hear it too.” Nino agreed with a grin.

“I hate all of you,” Marinette grumbled crossing her arms in front of her as she pouted.

Adrien chuckled at her before putting her out of her misery, “Okay, Chlo. What did you figure out?”

“So, I focused on Bruce Wayne, Richard Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and Damian Wayne. I couldn’t get an identity on Spoiler and there is no public information on Cassandra Cain, who is probably Batgirl, so I could only look at her vigilante work. But if Constantine is right, they are both still in Shanghai. It is unlikely they would have brought them in just to talk with us. So for tonight, they don’t matter.” Chloe explained before continuing with her analysis.

“The rest of the Wayne family are a treasure trove of insecurities, pressure points, and triggers. I’m just going to go over the biggest ones since we hopefully will only have to deal with them for a few minutes at the most. These unstable assholes are definitely Hawkmoth’s wet dream. Extremely well trained and no control over their emotions. All have extreme versions of insecurity complexes, but react differently.

“Bruce Thomas Wayne is a control freak. His public persona isn’t much help. As far as I can tell, most of it is a mask. He pretends to be a drunk, irresponsible, billionaire playboy but we know he’s Batman so all that is bullshit. What isn’t is that he is a good negotiator and actor, all of which means he can be a good manipulator and we know from his experience as Batman that he is extremely strategic. Be suspect of anything he tells you. His intentions appear to stem from a genuine concern with making lives better, but how much he is willing to listen to other people’s opinion of what constitutes better is questionable, especially after what we know of the Justice League’s actions. He has a history of enforcing his vision onto other people, whether they want it or not, of taking control. He needs to be in control, or feel like he is so he can prepare for what is coming and make sure it doesn’t turn against him.

“The oldest, Richard John Grayson, has a martyr complex. He’s so devoted to the saving people thing he became a cop in his civilian life as well, by all accounts an uncorrupt one, and that’s saying something in Gotham and Blüdhaven. Takes on too much at one time trying to fix everything and feels responsible for every bad thing that happens, even if he wasn’t there… especially if he wasn’t there, to stop it. If he only would have done whatever, then the bad thing wouldn’t have happened. If only he was better, blah, blah, blah. Sound familiar?” she looks pointedly at Marinette. “That’s his weakest spot. He takes the blame.

“The next, Jason Peter Todd has abandonment issues. He’s constantly waiting for people to walk away from him like his parents did. There is something more there, I know there is, like whatever happened when he disappeared for a few years, but we don’t have access to that information. Ridiculously protective of kids on the street, I think because he essentially grew up on them himself. But, here’s the catch, he became a crime lord in order to protect them. He is willing to go dark to protect people, so they never have to feel like he did and never have to do what he had to do. He’s straightforward and aggressive. He feels like everyone is going to walk away from him because he isn’t enough for them to stay. He’s dangerous.

“The next, Timothy Jackson Drake has inadequacy issues. Wealthy, absentee parents who likely never treated him like anything more than a business asset.” She looked sympathetically at Adrien. “He is a certified genius. Started running Wayne Enterprises a few years ago. He likes a challenge and is an incredible negotiator. He likes working things out on his own. He’s smart and curious. He knows exactly what to ask in order to get the information he needs without you even knowing that’s what he did. Be careful answering any questions or reacting to any statements from him. He is constantly trying to prove himself so people will love him. He takes any failure extremely personally because it means he doesn’t deserve love and a reminder that he isn’t who he thought he was and therefore not worthy.

“The youngest, Damian Wayne, known as the Ice Prince in Gotham, has a superiority complex. Nobody gets close to him and nobody wants to. He showed up in Gotham at age 10 with a fully-fledged attitude. Everyone and everything is beneath him. He also drives himself to extremes in order to confirm his superiority. He insults and belittles others because he believes he should be superior to everyone around him, but he is afraid he isn’t and if he isn’t better, then he is significantly worse.”

The rest of the room looked at her sympathetically. They all knew she wasn’t just talking about Damian. That was her up until a few years ago. She _needed_ to believe she was better than everyone else and needed everyone around her to believe it too. If she was better then she deserved her parents’ love. If she had everyone else’s love, it made it easier to fool herself into believing her parents loved her as well, or blunt the feeling when she would realize just how much they didn’t. But years of therapy, a higher purpose, and real friends that truly wanted the best for her but refused to take any shit from her, made her realize she didn’t need to be that person to deserve love.

“Also keep in mind there are likely significant trust issues going on here.” Chloe continued ignoring the looks from the rest of the room. “There are a lot of reports of violence between Red Hood and Red Robin, Red Hood and Robin, Red Hood and… everyone actually, as well as Robin and Red Robin. Based on fact that violence is higher immediately after a changing of the guard, I’d say the passing of the mantle from one Robin to another has never been consensual and likely contributed to their complexes. They are held together by the thinnest of threads. We can snap that if we need to… but I don’t think we want to go that far. If we snap that… I don’t know how much damage that will do or if they will come back from it.” She cautioned hesitantly.

“Agreed. I don’t want to go there. There is plenty to use without going into the family issues, without causing irreparable damage.” Marinette concurred. They didn’t want the Bat family in Paris but they didn’t want to destroy them either. She wasn’t willing to let herself or her team become monsters in order to stop them. At the end of the day, they were ultimately all on the same team, they all wanted the same outcome, they just had different ways they wanted to get there… and different ideas about who got to decide that… and who should lead it…

“God these people need a hug not whatever that ‘family’ of theirs is providing each other.” Nino said aghast at the report.

“Marinette’s already on top of that, at least for one of them…” Alya smirked.

“Fuck you, bitch.” Marinette narrowed her eyes at her.

“I’m on top of that one,” Nino grinned, raising his hand.

“Oh God. Seriously we need to investigate that brain bleach thing,” Marinette groaned squeezing her eyes shut trying to keep that image from appearing.

“Okay,” Adrien announced over everyone, “we all agree after this whole Hawkmoth thing is over, I get to kick Constantine’s ass and we all portal over to the Batcave and hug the insecure, unfairly cute, prickly, little echidnas until they feel better, right?” Adrien asked solemnly.

“Ugh, fine but I’m not hugging the gremlin. Someone else gets that one,” Chloe called out throwing out her arms.

The room stilled as everyone else looked at each other, “Not it!” they all called at almost the exact same moment.

“Damn it,” Nino cried as he realized he had been a few seconds slower than everyone else.

“That’s what you get for being a turtle. When the confrontation happens, I got the pampered rich kid.” Chloe announced. This was her area. She knew just where to push kids like that, like her. She knew exactly what to say to get them, her, to hit them at their most vulnerable. To push just enough to make an impact without breaking them.

“No, Chloe. We don’t want to tip our hand and we need you guys to stand sentry. I want you, Alya, and Nino to hang back acting as scouts. This is likely to go bad and I need you guys in a triangular formation a block out watching for akumas. Adrien and I will talk to them.”

“Alone?” Nino asked tentatively. His job was to protect. He didn’t like the idea of not being close enough to act if they should need it.

“They aren’t going to attack us, at least not physically. And we will take an extra miraculous each.” Marinette smiled gently to placate him.

“Are you sure two is enough, m’lady?” Adrien asked curiously.

“You sure you aren’t just trying to keep it a bit more intimate for you and your boy?” Alya waggled her eyebrows.

Marinette glared at her, “Two should be enough.” She said ignoring the previous statement, “Combined with your two, we should be able to cover what we need to. It’s just the Batfamily. We should be able to handle them with just one each even if they wanted to attack us.” She grinned at Adrien. “Magic, gotta love it.” 

“Okay but when he calls you incompetent, which he will, you need to push back. Point out the ways he’s failed. He isn’t better than us, no matter what he thinks and the sooner you make him realize that, the sooner the real conversation can start.” Chloe warned.

“He is all of, what, 13? We are not going to try to emotionally damage a child.” Nino stated flatly.

“As long as he thinks he is better than us, he won’t take us seriously.” Chloe warned. Nino just glared back at her, not willing to give in on this. “Fine, if you don’t want to point out his failings, then point out the most impressive things we’ve done that they haven’t. That should suffice. Not as effective, but it should get you there.”

“Okay, if we’re going to start discussing strategy, we’re going to need some sustenance. Let’s get dinner ready so we can start discussing the plan for tonight,” Alya said throwing Nino’s legs off her lap. Marinette and Nino followed her to the kitchen leaving Chloe and Adrien behind.

“You know, I noticed something with your analysis, Chloe,” Adrien started quietly keeping his eyes on their friends.

“I would hope you noticed more than just one thing,” Chloe chided him.

“Cute,” he said rolling his eyes, “Jason was the only one you said was dangerous, why is that? 

“I thought it was obvious? The others have a limit. I don’t know that he does. And Marinette likes him, a lot. He has a power to hurt her that the others don’t. And they are very different. They are both willing to go as far as necessary to help others, but to her that means killing herself, to him that means killing everyone else and himself,” She looked at him uncertainly, “and I’m not sure how she will react to that.”

“You think he would do that if we let him stay here?”

“I don’t know enough about him to predict what he will do. He dialed it back to work with the bats again but… There really isn’t that much on him. I can tell you what Red Hood has done and that is bad, but not Jason Todd. Since he disappeared, presumed dead, hell maybe he was, who knows what happens in Gotham, there is nothing on Jason Todd. If you want me to try to predict, you can hop on down to Africa and see if you can borrow the kwami of prediction. Until then, it’s all guesswork. I need to see him. See how he acts before I could even try.”

He stared at her for a few seconds a look of utter confusion on his face, “You think the kwami of prediction is in Africa?”

“Do you ever hear any miraculous related shit doing down in Africa?” she fixed him with a knowing stare.

“No,” he said cautiously

“Exactly, because they know what’s coming and they do their fucking jobs.” She winked at him and walked away.

<><><><><>

Bruce, Jason, Tim, and Damian sat in the living area of Bruce’s hotel room in various states of suited up for the night. They had barely had time to throw their bags in their rooms before meeting up to prepare for the night. Damian was completely dressed and ready to go on a moment’s notice, as always more than ready to focus on business. Bruce and Tim were in everything but their masks, choosing comfort until they had to leave. Jason was sitting in a large chair in just his pants and shirt, attempting to look relaxed and nonchalant about them being so close to the girl he met at the gala. They were all staring at a massive screen linking them to Dick, Alfred, and Selina in the Batcave. 

“So, how’s Paris, boys?” Selina asked from her position lounging in one of the chairs. “Meet any _interesting_ people yet? Jason?” She added with a smirk.

“You know Bruce, all work and no play. We haven’t gotten a chance to get out and meet anyone. Doing this instead.” Jason shrugged with a practiced indifference, forcing himself to recline further back into the chair in an effort to seem casual. 

“Haven’t even gotten to see the Eiffel Tower yet?” She asked in mock sympathy.

“Oh, no, we saw it… from the plane.” Jason played along.

“You really should make sure to visit the Eiffel Tower while there, Master Bruce.” Alfred threw in trying to downplay his amused smile.

“It’s not as impressive as you think it will be,” Tim muttered to nobody in particular.

“We’re here for a reason, Jason. If we don’t want to lose today, we need to get started immediately…” Bruce admonished him but upon looking up and seeing Alfred’s unimpressed look added, “We can get lunch near the Eiffel Tower tomorrow. Better?” He looked to Alfred who switched to small smile instead. Taking that as approval, Bruce nodded to Tim indicating they were ready for him to start his presentation.

Tim nodded to Bruce and moved to the front of the group and pulled up an image from the Ladyblog displaying five superheroes and their names on half of the screen. “I’ve found a few local resources on the heroes we couldn’t see back home and have downloaded their contents and sent them back to you guys,” he said nodding toward the half of the screen displaying the cave, “so you can look through the information as well. I’m not sure what is preventing the data from being accessible from America, but I suspect magic.” He glared at the screen like it personally offended him, “I hate magic. 

“I’ve only had about 30 minutes to prepare so this is going to be brief. I mainly focused on… well actually I _mainly_ focused on figuring out the best resources for information, downloading copies of the site content, and sending a copy back to the batcomputer. But after that, I mainly focused on figuring out who the heroes are so we know who we might run into and who to look for tonight. 

“The available information indicates a villain named Hawkmoth appeared in Paris roughly five years ago…”

“Huh. Where have I heard that before?” Jason muttered from his seat.

“… and the heroes Ladybug and Chat Noir appeared at the same time.” Tim continued a bit louder this time. “There appear to be five regular heroes and a few heroes that appear from time to time. Here are images of the heroes we know about,” he nodded to the image on the screen. He switched briefly to another image displaying the lesser known heroes before returning to the image of the main five heroes. “Not every battle is caught on camera and of the battles that are caught, most of the actual fighting is not caught, making it easy to miss heroes and villains in the fight. The resources make it clear there likely are more heroes that we don’t know about, which I would say is a definite since your girlfriend didn’t appear on any of the sites.” He nodded toward Jason who just huffed and crossed his arms in response, not willing to give him the satisfaction of a reaction.

“The primary heroes are Ladybug and Chat Noir, with Ladybug as the leader. Those are the two we need to convince if we want any information. We know a few identities of past heroes, including a girl who lives in this hotel, Chloe Bourgeois. She was a bee themed heroine named Queen Bee. Since then another bee themed heroine has appeared and is one of the 5 regulars.”

Jason narrowed his eyes at the screen, “It looks like the same person. Could it be her in a different costume?”

“I don’t think so,” Tim answered shaking his head, “When I was looking at her page on the sites I think I saw that she has been seen at the same time as the new bee hero. I can analyze it more when I get more time, but the local experts don’t appear to think they are. We don’t know the identity of the new bee.”

“You think they look similar?” Dick asked incredulously. “You’re crazy. Their costume, hair color, eye color, height, everything is different.” Jason looked between Dick and the image of the two bee wielders a few times. One of them was crazy, he just wasn’t sure which one of them it was.

“Figure out where she lives then you should arrange to run into her tomorrow.” Bruce said nodding toward Tim.

Tim gave a single nod to Bruce accepting the assignment. “There seems to have been a massive overhaul of heroes about a year into the fight. All of the heroes except Ladybug and Chat Noir were replaced with new heroes. No explanation was given… or maybe there is one I just haven’t found it yet.”

Damian scoffed, “There’s one villain and five or more heroes and they haven’t been able to take him down? Pathetic. These are the people entrusted with objects capable to destroying the world?”

“I haven’t been able to get much information yet so we don’t know exactly what is going on but it looks like there is more than just Hawkmoth. He might be a leader or mastermind behind the villains. I’ve seen at least a few other villain names mentioned when looking up the heroes.”

“Do we think they all have a miraculous as well?” Dick asked.

“Not sure. I haven’t gotten that far yet, but it stands to reason.” Tim nodded absentmindedly.

Jason moved closer to the screen staring intently at the pictures of Ladybug from different years. There was something familiar about her but there was something else sitting on the edge of his consciousness, he just needed to figure out what his subconscious was trying to tell him. His eyebrows furrowed and he narrowed his eyes trying to block out anything but the images. His eyes widened as the realization suddenly hit him, “Mother fucker!” He whipped around to Tim, “Do we have any indication of how old these heroes are? They look like babies in those older pictures.”

Tim shrugged, “Haven’t gotten that far yet so, not sure. But I glanced at a section on Ladybug and Chat Noir throughout history so at least for them, somewhere between 5 and 5000. I should have a better idea tomorrow after I’ve had a chance to read a bit more.” He squinted at the pictures, “You think they look young?”

“You don’t?” Jason asked incredulously.

Damian examined the images a bit harder as well. “They do seem around my age in the first images.”

“Really? I’m with Tim, I can’t tell either. I can’t get a good feel for age when I look at the pictures.” Dick’s voice came over the speaker. “That’s strange. Their faces are at least partially exposed. I should be able to get an idea at least.” He paused for a few seconds. “Do you think the magic is helping conceal their identities as well?”

Tim stared at the images as well, moving slowly closer to them, “Maybe,” he nodded subconsciously, “I can’t get a feel either. The longer I stare at them the harder it is to tell anything.”

“Magic.” Bruce shook his head in disgust. “Anything else to tell us tonight, Tim?”

Tim shook his head “Not today. I’ll have more tomorrow.”

Bruce nodded a thanks and switched places with Tim. Damian scowled at Tim and moved to put some distance between him and Tim. Tim fought off rolling his eyes in annoyance, but only just managed it. Bruce turned to the rest of the team, “Okay, as soon as we are done here, we’ll start scouting the city to see if we can make contact. We are not looking to be too subtle with this. We want them to know we are here. If you catch sight of them, let the rest of us know we will send someone to talk to them about a meeting later tonight or tomorrow. I want to make this very clear. Our goal today is to meet the local heroes and set up a meeting in the next few days in order to gather more information. The primary mission is recon. We have no idea what exactly is going on here or how dangerous it is. We are not engaging tonight. We want them to trust us, think we’re on their side, and get as much information out of them as we can, on the situation and the miraculous.”

“If we want them to trust us, we should leave the rabid squirrel here. Or better yet, send his petty ass home. He’s only going to cause trouble.” Jason griped, motioning toward Damian. Tim did roll his eyes this time. It was a stupid fight to pick. Damian wasn’t going anywhere. Damian wanted to come and Bruce gave in. They were just on containment duty now, trying to minimize the damage Damian would do.

“You’ve made your feelings more than abundantly clear on the matter, Little Wing, frequently. _Damian_ is there now. Deal with it.” Dick reprimanded him, tired of this conversation. Jason hadn’t gotten his way in their discussion in the Batcave. He hadn’t gotten his way discussing it the next day. He hadn’t gotten his way in the car on the way to the airport or boarding the plane or on the plane or deplaning or while checking into the hotel, he wasn’t going to get Damian kicked off the mission now.

“Someone needs to be there to make sure you don’t tell them all our secrets trying to impress some vapid, philistine harpy.” Damian snapped turning his back to Jason. 

It was a small miscalculation, but in this family that is all that is needed. By moving away from Tim, he had placed himself close to Jason and by turning, he had left himself open to Jason’s much longer arm reach. Jason grabbed Damian’s cape and yanked back sharply. “Watch your mouth, you puerile, creepy, little shit.” Damian let out a startled grunt before landing with a loud thump on the ground. He growled at Jason and tensed to pounce on him.

“Jason!” Bruce admonished moving between the two boys. “Let’s focus on the mission.”

Jason rolled his eyes. Of fucking course that would be Bruce’s reaction. “Right. Don’t want to prevent the oncoming disaster if it’s coming from inside the house.” He leaned back in the chair with a huff. “You want to focus on the mission, Old Man? Fine. Coming at them with an almost full team that includes this asshole,” he motioned toward Damian, “doesn’t exactly scream ‘trust us’, does it? Do we really want everyone to show up to this thing? Maybe one or two of you should stay in the room.”

“Considering your girlfriend threatened to leave us bloody and broken, more is probably a safer bet. We probably should have insisted on Dick coming as well, maybe have the girls meet us here too. And do you really want to leave Damian unsupervised?” Tim asked with a raised brow fully facing him. The only way to attempt to contain Damian at this point was to keep him close and Jason knew it.

“You could stay with him. We weren’t planning on actually having a discussion tonight anyway. That way you could get more research done and someone could watch the child.” Jason reasoned. Tim nodded in thought. Not a bad idea at all. He would like more time to research before they actually interacted with any of the heroes. But it came from Jason so there must be something wrong with it. He just needed to figure out what it was.

Damian growled at the description. “I am not a child.”

Jason scoffed back at him, “You act like one.”

Damian jumped at him flipping midair and unsheathing his katana, landing with it a few centimeters from Jason’s jugular, “Could a child do that?”

“One just did.” Jason glowered at him, hitting the sword away.

“Jason has a point.” Dick spoke up, breaking the tension. Damian whipped his head to Dick’s image on the screen his face giving away a flash of hurt before almost immediately schooling his expression into a blank look.

“Did that hurt to say?” Jason asked with a smirk, “It looked like it hurt. That’s okay sometimes the most satisfying things do.”

“Yeah, that’s healthy,” Tim muttered to himself.

Dick rolled his eyes and continued on, ignoring Jason, “Sending so many, especially hostile ones, looks like a power play. It looks like you’re trying to intimidate them.”

“We are,” Damian snapped at him.

“You aren’t.” Dick corrected him. “You’re trying to get them on your side. You are trying to get them to trust you. Not scare them.”

“We won’t all show up to meet them. I’ll take the lead along with Tim. Jason and Damian will hold back and watch.” Bruce clarified. “For tonight I want everyone out and about so we can cover more ground and hopefully either run into one of the heroes or make our presence known enough to get their attention for tomorrow.”

“If this” Damian indicated all of them in the room, “is all it takes to scare them, they need our help more than we thought.”

“He didn’t say it would scare them, he said it looks like we are trying to scare them.” Jason responded with a sharp edge to his voice.

“You’re welcome to stay back in the room.” Tim offered annoyed with the conversation.

“I have information I want too” Jason growled at him.

“We are not here to get information on that woman.” Tim rebuked him.

 _“You_ aren’t” Jason muttered turning away.

“Jason” Bruce said sternly, “We are here to collect data on the miraculous and the heroes and see how much danger we and the world are in and if something needs to be done.”

“Not get you a date with a girl you don’t know and don’t even know if she is interested.” Tim taunted him.

“This is not about getting a date,” Jason defended himself.

Tim, Dick, and Damian all scoffed in unison while Bruce and Alfred gave Jason a skeptical look. Selina sat in the background with an amused smile. Really, the only result she was interested in from this mission was Jason finding his girl.

Jason glared at him before turning to Bruce, “I know what we’re here for…” He wouldn’t turn a date down if it should come up and if he managed to find her, he was definitely going to ask her. But, his priority was to help her, which meant both finding her and getting information on the miraculous. If he wanted to achieve both of his goals, he first needed to focus on that the family wanted… for now, so they would be distracted and he could focus on his other mission alone. “What exactly were you thinking might need to be done?”

“Whatever we have to.” Bruce responded calmly but with steel in his eyes.

Jason furrowed his brows at Bruce. That explanation was significantly more hostile than the original mission statement. Not that he was surprised, but Bruce stating it so plainly meant he considered it a higher probability. “That’s a far cry from the ‘we’re just gathering information’ mission you extolled earlier.” Jason gritted out.

“It’s all related.” Bruce stated.

“Why do you think we’re here, Todd? We need to figure out if we need to acquire the miraculous and how to do so.” Damian snapped at him.

“You’re planning on taking the miraculous?” Tim rounded on Bruce, his confusion evident, having come to the same conclusion as Jason. “You said over and over again you didn’t think we needed to worry about the girl that broke into the cave and now you’re planning on stealing their miraculous?”

“We are not going to steal their miraculous!” Jason exclaimed. What the hell was going on? He had thought they were making progress. Bruce agreed to investigate and offer help fight Paris’ villain and now they were planning on taking out the heroes themselves.

“We are going to assess the situation.” Bruce clarified trying to pacify them and bring emotions down to a quiet rumbling rather than a full out roar. Completely content was never an option and Bruce knew it.

“We wouldn’t steal Green Lantern’s ring, we shouldn’t even be thinking about touching theirs.” Jason yelled.

“We would if he were evil.” Dick reasoned, not at all surprised by the turn of events and long past getting upset when Bruce made plans like these. Bruce liked to be prepared. The Paris heroes might not ever do anything evil. They might become allies, but that wouldn’t stop Bruce from figuring out their weaknesses and how to take them down should the need arise.

“If they were evil, Constantine wouldn’t be helping them.” Jason argued back, his face starting to turn red, “Not wanting to have you interfere doesn’t make them evil B.” Jason argued back.

“We are not planning on taking anything, but we need to be prepared if things go bad. We don’t know enough to even begin to guess what could go wrong to cause us to step in. At this stage, we are just trying to get an idea what is going on so we can get a better idea of what to ask later so we can make a plan.” Bruce started moving toward the balcony doors as he pulled on his cowl, “Now finish suiting up. Let’s go.”

“Oh this is going to go just fucking swimmingly,” Jason muttered under his breath as he pulled on his jacket and grabbed his helmet. Tim hummed in agreement and started bracing for the worst, which was standard practice at this point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Sigh* I honestly thought they would meet again, kinda, in this chapter, but then they didn’t, the unruly bastards. So very sorry. Next chapter I promise! I swear it is the next scene.


	6. Never Meet Your Heroes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The miraculous team and the batfamily finally meet. It... doesn't go well.

“What the fuck is this bullshit! Are you sure?” Chat Noir exclaimed loudly from his perch across the street from the hotel.

“Just telling you what I see, dude. There’s no Nightwing in that room.” Carapace reported with very little sympathy from his position across the street from the hotel on the other side from Ladybug and Chat Noir. “And I’m only seeing four heat signatures so I don’t think I’m just missing him. It looks like the big Bat, the little bat, and the middle bats. Basically, all the bats that were in town _except_ Nightwing.”

“Wow! That is totally like a fuck you directly to Chat.” Rena Rouge laughed, turning to face toward Chat despite not having a direct line of sight to him. 

“That matches with what the front desk staff said.” Bee confirmed as she examined her nails. The roof she was on, a few blocks from the hotel in a different direction, had very little light to help with the examination, but she was determined not to let such little details prevent her from making sure she looked immaculate. She had standards damn it. “They only saw four men checking in.”

“And you’re just telling us this now why?” Rena Rouge inquired exasperated. Even with the distance between her position a few blocks away in a separate direction from everyone else, the roll of her eyes could be felt by everyone.

“Uh, because they just reported it? Plus, there is no way to know if that was accurate. They could have been trying to sneak the other one in to surprise us.” Bee responded as though anyone who didn’t understand that without her saying it was an utter idiot.

“Sorry, Chaton. Guess there’s no kissing tonight for you.” Ladybug smirked at him.

Chat looked at her with a pout trying to hide the amused glint in his eyes. “And what about your man? How are you planning on kissing him anyway? Even once you get past that atrocity of a mask, he’s like two of you on top of each other.”

“I am not that much shorter than him!” Ladybug declared indignantly, pouting her lips at him.

“He’s not too far off. That man is huge and you are… compact.” Rena tried to offer kindly but the sardonic grin on her face was evident in her voice.

“Sounds like that puts her at the perfect height to make him _really_ happy.” Bee smirked wickedly.

“Bee!! That is _absolutely not_ something I want to discuss right now… or ever. We are never having that conversation.” Ladybug exclaimed trying to cool down her burning cheeks. She had a hard enough time focusing when just thinking about caressing his face or running her fingers through his hair or… or kissing his perfect, luscious, inviting lips… Where were they again? “Can we please focus on the issue at hand before they scatter and announce their presence to Hawkmoth?” She wasn’t sure if she was talking more to the team or to herself.

“Just trying to help,” Bee shrugged as though everyone listening didn’t know that was a complete lie.

“Right… so the first order of business before we attack them is you reacting to that mask, right?” Chat asked with a wide childlike grin, already anticipating the carnage.

“We’re not going to attack them. We are going to politely inform them that their services are not required and kindly return to their own territory.” Ladybug corrected him, trying to get the team to focus on the mission.

“Yeah, yeah, ‘fuck off’ in the politest terms possible.” Chat dismissed her comment.

“No need to be polite about it,” Bee cut in.

“But, first order of business, right?” Chat continued barely restraining himself from bouncing back and forth on his toes.

“Can we focus on the task at hand, please?” Ladybug muttered. “I want to be ready to stop them _before_ Hawkmoth sees the Batfamily are in Paris and sends akumas for all of them.”

“So how are you planning on handling this? Good cop, bad cop?” Rena asked.

“How about strict but polite cops?” Ladybug offered instead.

“Boo,” Carapace said over the coms.

“No,” Chat responded quickly and a bit louder than necessary. “I want to be bad cop. They left Nightwing at home. They deserve it.”

“You just want an excuse to be a vindictive dick to someone.” Ladybug rolled her eyes at him.

“And?” Chat asked flatly.

“And we are fucking professionals and we will act like it.” She said. Chat gave her kitty eyes. She grunted and rolled her eyes, “Damn it. Fine. Bad cop, disappointed in your life choices cop. But they haven’t done anything to deserve us being assholes to them yet so reign it in unless things get hostile.”

“No, don’t reign it in. They need to know they are not welcome here.” Bee advised sharply.

“We can make that clear without creating enemies. If we push too hard, they won’t back off, they’ll push back and although we can take them, I really do not want to deal with the international fallout of permanently injuring the bats.”

“You know, you wouldn’t have to _permanently_ injure them.” Carapace pointed out.

“No, no, I’m going to permanently injure them.” Ladybug said overdramatically. She turned toward the hotel and let out a sigh. “I’m trying to be strategic with this. So far, what they know of us is we worked with Constantine and we didn’t call them in to help. That and breaking into their Batcave are the only things they know about us. That’s it. It is natural to want more information. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt. They might be assholes but I try not to be.”

“Since when?” Rena snarked.

“Fuck you,” Ladybug quipped back.

“Ugh, fine, but they are going to disguise their intentions behind innocuous questions and innuendos. Don’t hold back once they go there. Call that shit out. They are trying to get enough information so they can take over and we are well aware. They’re not that smart and we’re not that dumb. Just because we’re pretty doesn’t mean we’re stupid. They need to know it is in Paris’ best interests if they leave and quickly.” Bee stated flatly.

“Aww. You think we’re pretty?” Rena responded batting her eyes unseen. 

“No, but I’m pretty enough to bring up the average,” Bee responded with a smirk.

Before a snark war could start, Ladybug interceded. “I’m aware Bee. I won’t say anything more than is available on the Ladyblog.”

“Oh damn!” Carapace swore over the coms. They could hear the wince in his voice. “That had to hurt.”

“What happened?” Ladybug demanded settling into a defensive posture.

“Your man just proved Edna Mode right using Robin as an example.” Carapace chuckled.

“Trust issues.” Bee said like a gameshow host introducing a prize.

Ladybug grimaced thinking about Robin’s costume. “Speaking of flashy and attention seeking, Rena, have you figured out what your distraction is going to be?”

“I have a few ideas. Any requests? You want big and flashy or subtle? Maybe mess with their heads and make them paranoid?”

“I want flashy. You wouldn’t do it with that last akuma. Give me this. Plus Batman is known for his dramatic entrances, but he’s on our turf now and I want to show them what dramatic really means.” Chat pouted at Ladybug’s unimpressed look.

“You were saying something about professionalism, Bug?” Bee’s voice came back.

“Are you suggesting petty grudges aren’t professional?” Carapace responded. “Because, I’m pretty sure that is the business model for most major companies.”

Ladybug lowered her head and shook it letting out a long, strained breath before she reacted, “You heard the man, Rena.”

“Flashy with a hint of fuck you, it is.” Rena confirmed with a nod.

“Movement in the room. It looks like they’re making their move.” Carapace reported.

Ladybug straightened immediately. The news rippled through the team like a flipped switch. Their relaxed postures and jovial comments were left behind in favor of vigilance. “Okay team, it’s starting. Carapace get into position. Rena, you got the distraction ready?”

“Know exactly what to do, Ladybug.” Rena confirmed.

“Perfect. Everybody in position?” Ladybug asked.

Affirmatives rang out from the three. “And remember LB, this isn’t about them, it’s about Paris. They don’t need to be happy with the results, they just need to leave.” Chat reminded her.

“Right. Understood.” She looked down and took a deep breath bracing herself for what was about to come. She rolled her shoulders back and stretched her head from side to side. She knew she could make them leave easily but she needed to do more than that. She needed to make them understand why they needed to stay away and agree to do so. Barring understanding, she needed to make them fear coming back, which was not a direction she wanted to go, which meant she _really_ needed to make them listen. All while Jason was there, looking at her. 

She was not looking forward to seeing him again. No, that was a lie. She was _very_ much looking forward to seeing him again, just not today, not like this. She didn’t want to have to manipulate him. She didn’t want to lie to him. That’s how they got in this situation in the first place, because she had the stupid, overwhelming urge to be honest with him, to let him in. But she wasn’t in a place where she got to do that. Letting people in meant making them a part of the fight. It made them vulnerable and wrecked their lives. She tried to contain the damage to mainly her and a bit to Adrien, but everyone who joined suffered. And the thought of causing him that much pain or having to fight an akumatized Jason…

Ladybug looked back up toward the roof across the street with a renewed determination, her gaze steely and her lips set. She waited until the last of the Bats had arrived on the roof before whispering into the coms, “Rena, you’re on.” 

<><><><><>

Red Hood landed on the roof last, bringing up the rear for the group. He looked out over the city willing himself to feel which direction he should go to find his Pixie Pop. He was focused intently on nothing in particular when he felt someone slap his arm. He whipped his head around to see Red Robin staring across the roof dumbfounded. He followed his line of sight and saw an odd looking fox sitting next to some pots on the other side of the roof. After a few moments Red Robin finally got his voice back and decided to use it to make a brilliantly insightful observation. “There’s a fox… on the roof.”

“How did a fox get up here? What kind of irresponsible hotel is this?” Robin demanded.

The fox hissed at him like she was personally insulted and ran toward them, rounding the edge of the pool so closely, she just barely missed falling in. Robin’s breath caught and he automatically reached in the direction of the fox, ready to rescue her should she fall into the pool. The fox continued on as though she hadn’t almost fallen in the water, increasing her speed as she ran between Robin and Red Robin toward the edge of the roof. Robin whirled around and jutted forward to grab the fox before she got hurt or fell off the roof. But the fox seemed to have other ideas, speeding up even faster and racing toward the edge of the roof before jumping off. 

Robin ran to the edge to see if the fox might have landed on a balcony, but fell back, landing hard on the ground when a cloud of bats flew up into the sky at a breakneck speed from the same spot the fox had jumped. Red Robin flinched back from the bats’ sudden appearance but Batman just narrowed his eyes at them. Red Hood cocked his head to the side watching the bat-like things flying around above them before taking off away from the hotel. “What the actual fucking fuck was that!” Red Hood exclaimed.

Ladybug and Chat landed on the roof behind the bats and watched them for a few moments. They turned to each other with smug smiles. No matter what else happened that night, they were always going to remember the chaos they had caused the bats. They were counting that as their first win. They turned back toward the bats and schooled their expressions. Ladybug gave them a few moments to notice them before she stage whispered to Chat, “How long do you think it will take them to notice us?”

“Super unimpressed right now.” Chat shook his head in disappointment, leaning casually on his baton.

The bats whipped around in unison. Batman and Robin refused to show the shock they felt. Instead, Batman stared intently at them while Robin glared at them. Red Robin looked back and forth between the Parisian heroes and the space where the bats had been flying, his face scrunching in confusion as if trying to figure something out. Red Hood however focused entirely on Ladybug, squinting at her as if trying to piece something together that refused to fit, not that anyone could see it under the mask.

Ladybug and Chat jumped down off the ledge but stayed on their side of the roof, allowing the pool to mark the division between the two groups, acting as a buffer between them, easy enough to get around should they need to, but demarcating the sides. Ladybug looked between the vigilantes, her gaze lingering a bit longer than it should on Red Hood. That hurt more than she expected, to see him but not talk to him, not really, not be able to acknowledge him or see what he was thinking. Because he couldn’t know it was her and even if he did, he couldn’t stay. She moved her gaze back to Batman with a strained smile, trying to calm her erratic heart. “Hello. Welcome to Paris. My name is Ladybug. This is Chat Noir.” Ladybug introduced them politely but with an edge to her voice.

“Is there anything we can help you with before you leave?” Chat asked innocently. Ladybug pressed her lips together in annoyance but kept her eyes on the bats. Not as bad as it could be.

“Good evening Ladybug, Chat Noir. I’m Batman. This is Robin, Red Robin, and Red Hood. We would like to discuss the situation here in Paris with you.”

“You’re missing your whole team. Where’s the other one?” Chat asked nonchalantly. Ladybug fought rolling her eyes. To be fair, Chat had warned her he was going to be a petty dick, she just was expecting a bit more of a focused dickishness. They were going up against Batman. They needed to focus, to project confidence and control. 

“Really, dude?” Carapace asked through the coms.

“Where’s _your_ other one? Where is the one that makes portals?” Red Hood asked not even attempting to mask the interest in his voice, and that hurt even more.

“And breaks into secret bases?” Red Robin grumbled loudly.

“She has been exposed thanks to you, Redwood. And the rule of the miraculous is once your identity is exposed you can no longer wield a miraculous.” Ladybug responded. It wasn’t a lie, not exactly. It was longstanding rule. It was heavily ignored, but it was still the rule. It was the jaywalking of the miraculous rules; there but nobody ever acknowledged it unless the situation was really dangerous. She lowered her eyes in guilt. He hadn’t _made_ her tell him. She had done that. It wasn’t his fault she had divulged their secret. She weighed letting him believe it was his fault so he would back off versus the guilt he would carry with him. She couldn’t let him carry that with him because of her. “She made her choice.”

“So you just, what? Kicked her to the curb?” Red Hood demanded indignant on behalf of the woman whose name he didn’t even know. How dare they use her and throw her away like that! She had risked going into a potential enemy’s base for them and they just throw her out like she was nothing. She lifted her eyes to him and studied him closer. His face was obscured tragically but his body was tense, angry. Not a good condition for Paris.

“Forget about the scapegrace.” Robin growled breaking their link. “Let’s get this over with.”

Red Hood glared at him but Ladybug cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes in concentration, studying Robin, looking for something in his face. When she didn’t see what she was looking for, she spoke up, “Chat, you speak English better than I do, was that an insult? That sounded like an insult, but I can’t tell.” Chat shrugged and gave her a non-committal grunt. She hummed in response and flashed an overly wide model smile Adrien used on the red carpet with overly pushy reporters, “I’m going to take that a compliment. Thank you for your kind words. I will let her know you send your well wishes and admiration.”

Robin growled at her. Red Robin looked down to hide the smirk that tried to push through and break his serious expression. Looking back up at the heroes, he started firing off his questions to hide his smile, “So she _was_ using a miraculous. Which one was she using? Are you using a miraculous? Is that what your villain is using as well? How many miraculous are in play right now? How many do you have? How did you know we were here?”

“That’s a lot of questions for people who aren’t welcome here and won’t be here much longer.” Chat answered sharply.

“Chat…” Ladybug said warningly. “Polite, remember?”

“That was polite.” Chat objected. She gave him a warning look. “This is our territory they invaded and our villain they were just about to offer their services to.”

“Now you guys are concerned about boundaries?” Red Robin deadpanned.

“We came here to find out more about the situation here.” Batman stated loudly bringing the attention back to him. “We were only recently made aware there was a situation and we would like to learn more about what is going on.”

“I’m sure you would, gothboy,” Bee growled over the coms.

Ladybug looked down to hide her smile. Getting her focus back, she asked, “And you needed almost your entire team to ask a few questions?”

“We weren’t sure of your receptiveness to visitors. We wanted to be able to protect ourselves in case you attacked.” Batman stated logically.

“Reasonable.” She nodded absentmindedly. “Better to be prepared than caught unaware. Although, it’s cute that you think you would stand a chance even with your whole team.” Ladybug said confidently. She wasn’t inviting a discussion on this and she wasn’t threatening them. She was stating a fact, one they should be aware of. Okay, maybe she was a bit more condescending than she had to be. But the bats had to know, they were not the power players in this group. The miraculous team were.

“You presumptuous, little feist. You have no idea what we are capable of, what we’ve done.” Robin growled. Batman’s hand on his shoulder cut his lecture short.

“Oh Sweetie, we are well aware of what you are capable, of what you have _done_.” She responded lowly, fixing him with a dark glare that had Robin faltering and Red Robin gulping. “It’s why we’ve made a point of keeping you _away_ from this situation. You are the ones who don’t know of what _we_ are capable.” A thunderclap sounded in the sky as though to accentuate her point.

Chat pursed his lips so hard to keep himself from laughing that the pink could no longer be seen. He was going to buy a drink for Alya after that.

A tense silence fell over the rooftop until Batman finally broke the tension. “You are correct, we do not know what you are capable of or what the nature of the situation here is. Could you give us a bit more information? We just want to see if there is anything we could do to help.”

“And not to take over because you think you can do better?” Ladybug asked with a raised brow.

“Clearly we could do better. You’ve been fighting the same villain for 5 years.” Robin scoffed at them.

“Robin!” Batman admonished him.

“Ignore him. He’s being a jealous little prick. He is physically incapable of being anything else.” Red Hood implored.

“When’s the last time you fought half a million enemies at the same time, _little_ one? And defeated all of them?” Ladybug asked throwing out the comment on his age and size knowing he would take it as a slight. “Because that was last week for us. One million was the week before. Not particularly impressive, I know, but it’s been a slow month.”

“Also, how’s the Penguin doing? You’ve been fighting him for over a decade now, right? You can’t even stop a fucking flightless, cold water bird.” Chat scoffed.

“You realize he isn’t an actual bird, right?” Red Robin asked wryly.

“Wait, What!? I have been sorely misinformed.” Chat gasped dramatically and brought his hand to his chest. “I completely take it back. It’s much less unimpressive that you’ve been fighting with billions of dollars of support and technology against a single person with no super powers for a decade.” He said dryly.

“Honestly would have been more impressive if it had been an actual bird. Significantly cooler too.” Carapace over the coms.

“We’re not here to fight.” Batman said calmly.

“Could have fooled me,” Chat grumbled.

“Probably, doesn’t seem like it’s too hard to do.” Robin scoffed.

“Oh, that little… next time I’m coming too. Give me just 5 minutes with that little gremlin.” Bee growled through the coms.

Ladybug crooked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes, “Yeah, non-hostile is definitely the vibe we’re getting from you.”

Red Hood held out his hands trying to placate them, “We found out about the situation from the other woman and we want to help. She said things were bad. She said you needed help.”

“That seems highly unlikely,” Carapace scoffed.

“What the hell did you say back there?” Rena asked skeptically.

“She told you we needed help? She said she wanted you to intervene, Redwood?” Ladybug questioned him incredulity in her voice. 

Red Hood furrowed his brows and huffed, “Red Hood.”

“What?”

“It’s Red Hood, not Red Wood.”

She furrowed her brows in confusion, “I meant Redwood like the tree? You know, the… the tree…” she motioned indicating something tall. “Is that not the word for those really big trees in America? Redwoods?” She asked Chat uncertain.

Chat looked at her wide-eyed, “Did you… did you make his name into a pun?”

She looked back at him horrified, “No! Why would you… oh, yeah, I see it now. Shit.” She looked over to Chat with desperation in her eyes. “That nickname never happened. We all forget that happened and we never mention it again.”

“No, no. That’s the only way we are referring to him from now on. I’m spreading the word.” Chat grinned at her.

“Word is spread, dude.” Carapace responded back. “He is now dubbed Red Wood the Dancer.”

“How’s that professionalism looking right about now, Bug?” Bee asked with amusement clear in her voice.

“I hate you,” the ‘all’ went unspoken but everyone on her team heard it.

“You know I’m still here, right?” Red Hood spoke up.

“Yeah, but your opinion of what we call you doesn’t matter.” Chat shrugged.

Ladybug let out a long suffering sigh, looking back to Red Hood to continue the conversation. She immediately squeezed her eyes shut, “And could you not wear that thing while you are talking. It’s extremely distracting. Who designed that for you and what dishonor did you inflict upon them and their ancestors to cause them to punish you with it, and thereby the rest of us?”

“I… this helmet serves a purpose.” Red Hood defended himself.

“To terrorize your opponents?” She asked skeptically.

“That’s part of it.” Red Hood confirmed.

“Mission accomplished, but not the way you intended, I think.” She said narrowing her eyes at him. “Seriously, it’s like looking at an elementary school play about Hellboy.”

Red Hood was left gaping, grasping for words. “Disappointed. You could have done better, Dudette.” Carapace said through the coms.

“I expect a follow up to that next time you see him,” Rena added.

“I changed my mind. I think I’m warming up to them.” Red Robin grinned.

Red Hood glared at Red Robin, “Back to the original question, no. She said Constantine was helping. She said people were suffering, children were suffering. I want to help end that. We just want to help.”

Robin shot a condescending grin at them, “Of course if you want to keep allowing the people of Paris to suffer because you’re too proud to accept help you so desperately need, yet too incompetent to end it on your own…”

“Excuse me? What! Oh no, I was totally wrong about him. Go for it. Take him down, Dudette.” Carapace growled.

“So to be clear, she said she was already getting help and you heard her tell Constantine you weren’t supposed to know about the situation let alone welcome in Paris and you came anyway.” She stared them down, letting her words sink in. “You need to leave now. You can’t be here. Leave in the morning or we will force you.” Ladybug says grimly. 

Robin glowering at her. “As if someone like you could”

“Without breaking a sweat, Sweetie. The warning is purely an attempt to keep things friendly. And with all due respect…”

“Which isn’t much,” rang out from all four members of team at the same time.

“…I assure you, if we have to remove you, things will be considerably less _friendly_ and you won’t even know what hit you.” Ladybug stated coldly.

“You contemptible, duplicitous, mendacious, cretinous, Jezebel!” Robin raged.

“Robin, if you do not shut your fucking mouth right now,” Red Hood growled as he stalked toward him only held back by Red Robin, “I will personally toss you right the fuck after that fucking fox without your grappling hook.”

“You might want to apologize, Robin, or my arm might give out and not be able to hold him back anymore.” Red Robin hissed.

“Boys!” Batman thundered. “We are on a mission.”

Ladybug crooked her head to the side again, “I know you haven’t been doing this very long so a piece of advice for you; I understood very little of what you said. As a result, I am not nearly as offended as you wanted me to be. Look, I understand that Pompous Asshole is the only language you speak, but it may enhance your effectiveness if you were to work on bettering yourself in the communications area. It’s hard to intimidate someone if they have no idea what you are saying.”

Robin turned red at the suggestion he was inferior in any area, especially intimidation. He was to be feared not belittled. He had been trained as such since he was born. “See, I turned you redder than my suit solely using words you understood.”

Red Robin turned slightly toward Red hood with a huge grin and said quietly, “I’m definitely warming up to them.”

“Not to mention you are letting your anger undermine your stated purpose for being here. To make it clearer to you, you are messing it up for your team because you are incapable of controlling your emotions, so interested in making us feel like failures that you are causing your entire team to become one.” Ladybug broke it down sternly but softly, like she was speaking to a child, which she was. Despite what he thought of himself, he was a child.

Robin tensed to jump at them, reaching for his sword but stopped when Batman placed his hand on his shoulder and squeezed hard giving him a hard stare. “We are not suggesting you haven’t been doing a good job.” Batman stated. Robin scoffed. “We did not come to fight, I promise.”

“Wise move, but I think not everyone on your team got the memo.” Ladybug said coolly.

“It’s a shame he doesn’t have parents to teach him manners.” Chat stated casually as though he was thinking out loud. “Or maybe they’re more like mine, too invested in their own interests to actually invest in parenting their kids.” He turned a sharp gaze back to Batman, “Anyway, I digress, you were saying something?”

Red Robin grinned at the ground again as Red Hood interceded, attempting to change the topic. “We are all here to get more information and if you aren’t willing to give that then… then that’s fine. Can I just speak with the other woman, please?”

“Hood…” Batman warned.

“Ooo, LB. He’s got it bad.” Rena smiled.

“I assure you, you won’t get a different answer from her.” Ladybug responded plainly, forcing her eyes to stay sharp instead of softening like they wanted to do. He was not playing fair and he didn’t even know it. He was messing with her heart making it speed up and stop and skip beats all at the same time. It wasn’t fair.

“That’s fine. I just want to talk with her.” Red Hood asked, a touch of desperation leaking through his words.

“I think she has said quite enough talking already. She won’t be doing any more, not with you, not anytime soon.” Ladybug responded harshly. She still felt guilty for letting herself expose them to him like she had and needed to remind herself.

“What did you do to her?” Red Hood asked warily.

“She’s fine. _We_ don’t harm our allies.” Ladybug said pointedly throwing a glare over toward Batman. “She does not want you here right now either.”

“You don’t speak for her,” Red Hood growled at her.

“Right now I do. She agrees the situation is too dangerous to have the Justice League here. It’s too dangerous for her and for you to be here until we have ended the threat.”

Red Hood desperately looking for some way to recover this. He couldn’t go back without getting some clue about her, without getting closer. He needed a chance, just one chance to get closer. “Cat guy, you going to let her speak for you?” Red Hood tried instead.

“Oooh, that was the wrong move.” Rena winced.

“Dude’s desperate give him a break. He’s looking for anyone who’ll give him a different answer.” Carapace offered weakly. He was rooting for him and willing to give him a break on one desperate, stupid attempt.

“Me? Yeah, that’s the way it works. She does the talking, I do the destroying.” Chat glared back at him then whispered “Black Storm” causing a black ball of condensed misfortune to appear between his hands. “Unless you’d really like me to take over…” he said rolling the ball between his hands like a magician’s floating ball.

“We are trying to help you dolt. We have experience and training, which you are sorely in need of.” Robin shouted at them.

“And excellent control over your emotions clearly. Tell me class why is that combination, NOT a benefit in this instance? Anyone? Anyone at all? Bueller? Bueller?” Chat taunted him.

“Listen here, you and your entire team, including that cat thieving hussy…” before Robin could finish the sentence Red Hood yelled, “Can you shut your trap for 3 seconds so we can have a conversation. We have a mission here and you are blowing it.”

A realization suddenly hit Chat, he pointed at Robin and looked at Ladybug wide eyed, “Oh it was his cat.” He turned back to Robin, “it was your cat. That explains the…” motions towards him and the hostility rolling off him in waves.

“You stole a cat?” Rena asked. 

“Can’t wait to hear that story.” Carapace grinned.

“Interesting,” Bee said thoughtfully.

“That’s it. Taking the com out now. If there is anything important, announce it.” Ladybug said quietly pulling out her com.

“Sorry about that. Cats just really, really like her.” Chat motioned toward Ladybug, “I can attest. But we returned him to you little man, so… all good, right?” Robin glared at him and opened his mouth to speak but was cut off.

“Why don’t you tell us why it is a bad idea?” Batman interceded, attempting to bring the conversation back to the topic at hand. It had not escaped his notice that they had been speaking for a while now and had yet to get _any_ information on the situation in Paris. “We would appreciate more information on the situation.”

Chat was done with this conversation, with the false promises, the hostilities, and the disrespect. “Huh, where did all that confidence and bravado go? Just a second ago I swear I heard something about knowing how to handle the situation better than us because we were so utterly, helplessly incompetent and yet here you are asking us what the situation is and for advice on how to handle it. Well here’s the advice; Get Out. Your interference will make Bialya look like a success.” Chat growled. Ladybug put a hand on his arm again warning him to back down on the hostility.

“Bialya was… an unfortunate event.” Batman conceded.

“That is putting it mildly. But the Justice League always knows better, right?” Chat hissed.

“Chat! Robin insinuated the incompetence not Batman. Batman is asking why we think it is a bad idea for them to stay and we want them to understand that, remember?” Ladybug offered attempting to bring down the hostility and suspicion on both sides. She was still well aware of Batman’s true intentions and he needed to be called on it, but they were edging to pushing too hard.”

“We just came to find out what is going on. Offer assistance if you needed it. NOT take over.” Red Robin repeated, looking directly at Ladybug. Chat was looking for a fight, but Ladybug appeared willing to talk. She was willing to work with them, at least a little. She was the one they needed to focus on.

Chat scoffed but Ladybug tightened her grip on his arm stopping him from continuing, “We appreciate the offer but we will kindly have to decline it. We have considered the options, researched the players, and we have decided at this point in time having members of the Justice League, or affiliated organizations, in Paris is too dangerous for us and for Paris.” Ladybug stated diplomatically, ignoring what she was sure were angry cries coming over the com in Chat’s ear about her being too nice.

“We would like to see if there is room for us to offer assistance. We would be negligent if we just took your word for it.” Batman said sternly not giving an inch.

“Already doubting our word and trying to force your way into the situation I see.” Ladybug quirked a brow but kept her voice light. “You can get the information you seek from any of the many online resources available.”

“Those aren’t available outside of Paris.” Red Robin pointed out.

“Well then I suggest you download the contents of the sites before you leave in the morning. You could also call up business people here to discuss the situation under the guise of investigating whether adding a Paris branch to… a company,” she just stopped herself from exposing their identities. Even if she was confident there were no cameras up here, it was still good practice. “…would be dangerous. Not to mention the files in your possession that we copied. They contain more than enough information to give you the insight you desire.” She suggested well aware of the fact that even with decryption software working full force, they would not be able to decipher the Grimoire texts. “There are options other than being here and exposing yourself to our villain.

“The abridged version is we have a villain that takes advantage of people’s negative emotions to possess them. It allows him to use that person’s knowledge, combined with his own against us. As a result, having people in Paris who are experts in combat or people who would go to any length to find out our identities is extremely dangerous to us and could tip the balance in Hawkmoth’s favor. That’s a double strike for you.”

“We don’t need to know your identities. We can help you without knowing them.” Red Robin assured them.

Ladybug cocked her head to the side, her voice dripping in skepticism. “Can you honestly say none of you would try to figure out our identities and how to defeat us? That you don’t have files on everyone you work with, on how to take them down, their weaknesses, where to hit to have the strongest impact, including discovering their identities with or without their permission?” Thank you to Constantine for that little tidbit. “Our identities are secret by necessity. We don’t even know each other’s identities,” a small lie, but a necessary one. It still made her uncomfortable to say it, she curled her fingers and straightened them back out in response to the uncomfortable feeling. “Imagine that information in the hands of Hawkmoth.”

“Like we would let someone take it.” Robin sneered at them.

“Like you could control it.” Chat sneered right back at him.

“Regardless of intent or actual physical possession of the files, as I mentioned before, our villain takes advantage of people’s emotions to turn them into supervillains with their own superpowers. He takes over their minds. Any negative emotion makes you susceptible. Have you ever felt sad? Mad? Frustrated? Guilty? Desperate? Then you’re susceptible. Tell me who in the Justice League would be immune to that?” Ladybug looked them in the eyes, refusing to back down or soften this blow.

“I’ve seen the moon destroyed and the world annihilated. We’ve seen the city flooded and a super volcano half the size of the city bubbling away instead of our suburbs. We’ve seen the very air turned into sulfer dioxide. Have you ever heard children screeching in more pain than any human should _ever_ have to experience? Have you heard hundreds at the same time? Have you had to listen to the inhuman sounds they make? We have and we relive it _every single night_. Have you had to dig through your partners’ blood to find their miraculous after watching them die in front of you, get beheaded next to you, in order to finish the fight? He has.” She said gesturing toward Chat. “Those were people with newly acquired powers but no training. Imagine what would happen if one of the Justice League became akumatized, familiarity with how to wield powers and strategic training with new and unlimited power… It was not a risk we were willing to take.”

Red Hood stared in horror. That was why his Pixie Pop was so angry at the gala when she thought Constantine was messing around and wasting time, because that is what she had to deal with and any delay meant the people of Paris had to deal with more of it. That was what she was so desperate to stop, Hell on Earth, constant agony. And every additional second they had to bear it was torture.

Red Robin stared dazed at her for a few moments but then narrowed his eyes realizing an inconsistency in her story, “The city looks amazingly unharmed, considering all you claim to have seen.”

“That’s my power. I fix miraculous related damage.” Ladybug responded tiredly.

“Convenient” Robin quipped.

“Not nearly as convenient as preventing it from happening in the first place, I assure you. The cure fixes the physical damage but it doesn’t fix the psychological damage done. It doesn’t take away the memories. Everyone remembers what happened to them and to the ones they love.” She turned to Batman with soft eyes, “I understand that you want to get as much information as humanly possible so you can feel like you have some control over this situation but you don’t. You won’t. You can’t. The help that would be most valuable to the city of Paris is if you could convince Bruce Wayne to send fleets of therapists. I understand you have a unique relationship with him.”

Batman stared silently, letting the description settle in. If what they were saying was true, then the situation was worse than he had anticipated. They were handling it but heroes had died. She was right that therapists would also be advantageous, not only for the citizens of Paris but for the heroes as well. It was a miracle they hadn’t had anyone break from the stress yet. If anything, it solidified his resolve to get to know everything he could about the situation so they could step in when one of the heroes inevitably did succumb to the pressure.

“We could help in other ways. We could offer support from a distance. We could help, we just need to know more about the miraculous and how they work, what their strengths and weaknesses are. We can work together.” Red Robin offered.

“Is that what you would do? Made a deal with a group that has a history of betrayal and violence towards allies? We know Batman would and has. Would you? And trust them to keep their word? Give them all the secrets and insights on how to undermine us or neutralize us? Trust them to stay out of Paris and not ‘know better than us how to handle it’? Not get us to trust you so you could find out more about the miraculous and take it so you could keep it better protected?” Ladybug asked in a dubious tone.

Batman stayed silent in response to the obvious suggestion. Not denying it. Red Hood and Red Robin shot Batman glares from the corner of their eyes, not wanting to make it completely obvious that she had deduced the plan they had been arguing over earlier.

Ladybug took note of their silence and hummed in response. “I thought so. It sounds like we made the correct choice after all.”

“No, please. It sounds like you have a lot of issues with B here. That’s fine, I understand. I do too. Let me stay and help.” Red Hood took off his mask revealing his face, no domino mask to preserve any semblance of secrecy. He wanted to lay everything out in the open. He moved closer to Ladybug and Chat until he was halfway between them and his family. He needed them to see how earnestly he meant his words. Ladybug’s breath hitched looking into his eyes shining with sincerity as he plead with them. She wanted to look over to his family to see how they were reacting but she couldn’t take her eyes off of Red Hood’s. 

“I can act as intermediary, support, nothing more. B and his team stay out of the city. Justice League stays out of the city. And I help train you and help you track down your villain. I’m a damn good detective. I can help.” Red Robin stared at him incredulously and Robin glared at him. Batman’s look was indecipherable.

He started to say something but is interrupted by sound of “Akumas incoming, multiple” coming from the areas of Chat’s baton and Ladybug’s cord around her waist.

“Dammit,” Ladybug yelled. “5 minutes! 5 fucking minutes! And honestly it could probably be any of them.” She pulled a familiar set of glasses out of her yoyo and threw them to Chat. “It's time for you to leave. Longg, Tikki, Unify.” She commanded as the necklace she was wearing glowed and she was washed in a golden light causing her suit, mask, and hair to change transforming into Dragon Bug. 

Chat grabbed the glasses out of the air without looking, keeping his glare settled on the Batfamily. “Looks like you managed to endanger all of Paris in all of 5 minutes. Congratulations, you’ve surpassed our already low expectations for you.” Chat sneered at them putting the glasses on and yelling “Plaag, Kaalki, Unify!” allowing a teal light to wash over him and change his suit, mask, and hair as well transforming him into Cheval Noir.

“Wait, what is an akuma?” Red Robin asked in defensive stance ready to attack whatever it was coming at them.

“It’s what turns you into unstoppable monsters. It’s why we didn’t want you here.” Ladybug snapped. “How long do we have?” Ladybug yelled searching the sky around them. The sound of “Maybe two minutes, if you’re lucky.” came from her waist. She nodded and focused on the pool.

There are many advantages to becoming an adult. Suddenly a person can participate in the government, vote, drink, buy a house, get married… But for Marinette and Adrien, the most significant advantage was they could expand their existing powers and unlock new powers. The moment they turned eighteen they were able to do new and exciting things with their miraculous. Their time limit was now nonexistent, they could call on their powers multiple times without recharging, and they could access new powers, powers like Black Storm and Tidal Wave, assuming they had been trained on how to call on them, or had access to and knowledge on how to read the sacred texts that described them, which they now had thanks to the files they had pilfered from the bats.

“Tidal wave!” Dragon Bug yelled moving her arms slowly. Everyone on the roof stared at Dragon Bug wondering what that command did. Their eyes were drawn to the pool when they noticed the water begin to move, slowly at first, swirling like a lazy current under the surface. The movement became faster as the water started to swirl around and rise above the edges of the pool. The bat family and Chat watched in disbelieving awe as the water rose out of the pool in one solid mass, swirling and twirling around and back into itself, and heading straight toward the bat family. 

The bats on the other side of the pool moved back a few steps but didn’t move fast enough in their stupor to escape the water. “What the hell?” Red Robin exclaimed quietly as he and Robin were swept up into the vortex that was now moving too fast for them to fight the current. Batman had managed to fight against the water for a few moments, but Robin and Red Robin, whose bodies were much lither were swept up immediately. The water carried them around again at a faster and faster velocity, on their second trip around the vortex, they collided with Batman, knocking him off his feet and forcing him to be at the mercy of the current. 

Chat was so mesmerized by the water show he forgot he was supposed to create a portal. Staring instead in wonder at the new power Ladybug had somehow mastered in a few hours. He found out about Black Storm yesterday and still could only roll it around a bit. He still had no idea what it would actually do if he used it. “Chat! Portal to the Batcave now” Dragon Bug screamed at him.

“Right! On it!” Chat exclaimed waking up from his stupor. “Voyage!” he called out motioning toward the water, creating a portal behind it. Ladybug pushed the water through the portal. She flicked her eyes over to Red Hood and hesitated.

“Got about 20 seconds at most, Bug. If you’re going to do something, do it now!” Carapace yelled.

“Are you leaving on your own or do I need to make you?” She asked with pleading eyes. She _did not_ want to make him. She needed him to understand and believe in her enough to do what she asked, even if he didn’t know it was her.

Red Hood looked between her and the portal. He turned back to her, “Please just let _me_ help.”

Dragon Bug looked at him with a conflicted look in her eyes. “It isn’t safe right now and we can’t deal with the akumas if I’m worrying about you too. We just don’t have time to prepare. I need you to go.”

Red Hood stared at her uncertain. “Please, we don’t have time.” Dragon Bug begged him again. He relented and walked backward toward the portal. She let out a grateful breath turned her attention toward the incoming akumas.

“There’s the first one,” Chat yelled. Red Hood whipped his head to where Chat was looking just barely seeing a butterfly over his shoulder as he picked up his pace and started running toward the portal, jumping through just as it closed behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full Disclosure: I came up with the Redwood nickname WEEKS before I realized it could be a pun. I was just looking for names indicating very large things. Chat has a much better ability to spot a pun than I do.  
> And it is my personal headcanon for this story is that Adrien is a bit like Dick. He likes to keep things light and jokey but if you want to go there, Bitch, he’ll go there with you. His lightness is a self-defense mechanism. Without it, he will go to a dark and scary place and he will take you there with him.  
> And also, I’m pretty sure this is before Duke was brought into the Batfamily. I think Damian was older than he is in the story when Duke appeared. Otherwise, clearly Duke would be the most rational person to send to Paris.


	7. The Significance of a Nickname

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Batfamily plans their next move after getting kicked out of Paris. Selina and Jason conspire. Jason and Marinette finally meet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know about you guys but I REALLY need something fluffy to make me feel good right about now and distract me from the clusterfuck that is America.

Dick stared at the monitor in shock as the video from Bruce, Tim, and Damian’s feeds played in different windows. They were trying to swim against the water but the current was too strong. The water had come out of nowhere. Something that shouldn’t have been surprising since they had no idea what their powers were, but it had caught them off guard.

Selina nodded to Alfred as she walked into the cave to check on the meeting progress. Her gait stuttered when a portal opened a few feet above the floor and the boys fell through landing with a hard thump. Dick spun around in his chair at the bat computer, a dark look on his face. Alfred was seated calmly at the table, sipping tea. He raised his brow at their appearance, unfazed by the results of the encounter. He’s seen stranger things. Selina perched herself on the table next to Alfred, taking the offered cup as she watched the heap of wet the batboys formed on the floor.

“So, how’d it go?” Selina purred almost laughing at the sight of the great Batman soaking wet sprawled out on the floor of the batcave.

Bruce stood up slowly, peeling off the cowl. “It… could have gone better.”

“Changed my mind again. I’m considerably less warmed up to them now.” Tim grunted shaking his arms and squeezing his cape to get off any excess water. “Who had waterbender on their super powers bingo board?”

“It would appear your approach of showing an overwhelming hostile force did not work, sir.” Alfred observed from his seat at the table. He took another sip of tea before standing up. “I will bring towels.” He paused at the sight of a very dry Jason jumping through the portal as it closed immediately behind him. He nodded to Jason then continued to the stairs.

Bruce glared at Alfred’s back but reluctantly said, “Thank you, Alfred. That was not the planned approach.”

Selina looked over to Jason to see how he was faring after the experience. He nodded to her and sat next to her, taking one of the cookies off the plate she offered him. “You look amazingly dry.” She said quietly.

“I’m not a dumbass.” He responded taking a bite of the cookie and ignoring the scoff Tim let out.

“They were prepared for you.” Dick noted.

“They got lucky,” Damian growled, ripping off his mask and cape.

“They knew who we were and how we thought. They knew what we said wanted and what we really wanted. Wonder how much Constantine told them about us.” Tim mused with a frown as he plopped down at the table and grabbed the cup of tea intended for Dick.

Dick shook his head looking back to the screen displaying a shot of the two heroes. “Not just that. They knew you were there. They knew when and where you were going to move and they intercepted you. They have connections, which isn’t surprising but it might be good to know exactly how extensive those connections are.” Dick corrected him. “It might help us to track them down.”

“One of the old heroes lives in the hotel… maybe she still works with them?” Tim nodded following his train of thought. 

“Check her out.” Bruce ordered. “As well as tracking down our uninvited guest’s identity. I would like to question her about all this too.”

“Did she do this to you?” Selina’s face lit up at the thought. “Oh my God I love that girl so much. I’m going to make her into my new kitten. You can’t adopt her, I’m taking her.” She pointed a warning finger at Bruce.

“It was a different one.” He grumbled back.

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure. On the same team though.”

“Huh, I like that entire team then. I’m going to need you guys to try to go up against them again soon. I just finished binging my show and I need a new source of entertainment. Dick, you have video of the confrontation I can check out later, right?” Selina purred. “I’ll make popcorn.”

“Not helping,” Batman growled. 

“But open hostility and admitting you were planning on trying to manipulate them into divulging enough information to know how to steal their jewel things from them was helping?” Jason cut in, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“I’m not planning on stealing their jewelry!” Batman growled at nobody in particular. He wasn’t planning on taking them. Why was everyone accusing him of planning on taking them? He might have to take them eventually, but he wasn’t planning on it… currently.

“Of course not, sir. But you are planning on making sure you know how to, should you decide at a later date to do so.” Alfred observed handing him a towel from the top of the pile he was carrying.

Bruce scowled at him, not at all appreciating the tone or accuracy of the statement. “Which they were more than well aware of.” Jason pointed out through the cookie in his mouth.

“Come on, Alfred. They didn’t exactly cement themselves as allies tonight. We had a right to question them, even more so after what just happened.” Dick pointed out, still upset at how at risk Bruce, Tim, and Damian had been in the water.

“They didn’t treat us any differently than B would have treated them if they showed up with less than honorable intentions in our city. Y’all are just upset they didn’t bow before the Great Batman. They knew we were there to betray them. And they forced us out because they didn’t have any more time to waste trying to get us to listen to them. Whatever the fuck that akuma thing was, it scared them and they needed us out.”

“We were _not_ there to betray them!” Bruce exclaimed loudly. He pointedly ignored the doubtful looks coming from more than half the room.

“Todd however, took the first opportunity to do so with us.” Damian growled. “And he comes back completely unscathed and defending the heathens.”

“And how exactly did I do that? By trying to fix the fuck ups you were causing left and right?” Jason barked back. “You were causing so many problems all three of us had to work over-fucking-time to get us back on track.”

“You suggested we leave and you stay to continue working with them, unobserved.” Damian fumed.

“It was me or nobody, Gollum. They sure as fuck weren’t going to let you or B stay.” Jason jeered.

“You exposed yourself and the rest of us. You took off your mask.”

“Jason made a good play.” Bruce stated firmly. “They are hostile toward us, but he is an unknown. If we want eyes on the situation, sending Jason there is the way to do it and maybe he can get them to open up more.”

“Father, you are not seriously going to let them continue to botch their job and allow the people of Paris to suffer due to their delusion.” Damian demanded.

“Enough Damian. They have a grasp on why they are doing what they are doing. They have researched it. They are not going in blindly. They are suspicious of us, but with cause. They know what we have to offer and our weaknesses are and they know it makes us the perfect weapons.” Bruce explained loudly, as though it was the end of the discussion.

“They are dangerous to us, to the world.” Damian insisted.

“If they wanted to hurt us, they could have.” Tim pointed out.

“They are not as impressive as they think they are. No matter how much bravado they have about their fighting, we are better.” Damian dismissed him proudly.

“They aren’t a threat to us…” Bruce began.

“Father, you can’t be serious.” Damian proclaimed loudly.

“… right now.” He continued with a stern look toward Damian. “She gave us some resources to investigate and we have Constantine. I’m confident if we talk with him we will get more information, maybe as much as he seems to have given them. He appears to want us to be on the same page, he may want to even things out. And if not, we can encourage him. But Ladybug or that girl seem to be the key. Ladybug was willing to work with us. The girl was willing to tell us the truth. They both gave us openings, openings we could break open into a chasm if we need to. They’re the weak links. We can exploit them.”

Jason gritted his teeth at the description, but held his anger in. He needed to be level headed about this. He needed to appear calm to get Bruce to agree and once he was in Paris, he could ignore Bruce and try to improve the situation. “So you’re okay with me going back.” He said carefully.

“No.” Bruce said firmly.

“What?” Jason exclaimed annoyed. “You just said it was a good play.”

“They don’t know you but we do. You are well trained in physical combat and weapons, maybe better than anyone else here.” Damian scoffed. “You are an expert tactician and strategist, and a good detective…” Tim scoffed

“Thank you…” Jason said uncertain, waiting for the other foot to drop because Batman _never_ complimented him, not since he was 14.

“But, you don’t have a good grasp on your emotions and if the pit madness took over… with your skills and the heightened emotions, you’d be a perfect weapon to kill Ladybug and Chat Noir.” Bruce said unemotionally.

“I can control my emotions,” Jason growled at him

“No, you can’t.” Batman responded.

“So we walk away?” Tim asked.

“No, we find a different way to keep eyes on the situation. They said they don’t want us in Paris, so we let them think they’ve won. We track down Constantine. We see if we can figure out the girl’s identity and contact her. We try to decipher the files they copied from us. We keep investigating from a distance. They did their research, we need to do ours as well.” Batman responded.

“Whatever,” Tim grumbled, not at all happy with the way _any_ of this night had gone. The mission had failed, spectacularly so, the post-op discussion had gone downhill quickly. He needed a warm shower and a break from the family. “I’m taking a shower.”

“That’s a good idea,” Bruce agreed. “Everyone clean up and get some rest. We’ll start researching tomorrow.”

Dick caught up with Tim as he was walking out. “So how was it? The glare?” He asked discretely.

Tim smiled back at Dick. Maybe the _entire_ night hadn’t been crap. “I almost melted. It was amazing. Like staring at a god. And that move at the end? I know I could have died, but still, damn! I want to do it again, you know, without the life threatening aspect to it.” Dick laughed and clapped him on the back.

Jason stayed in his seat as everyone else left, staring hard at a spot in front of him. He needed to figure out his next step separately from Bruce and the rest. He wasn’t going to help Bruce undermine them and go behind their backs. He just needed to figure out how to move forward. 

What had she told him that he could use to find her? Everybody left a trace, you just had to find the clues. What were the clues she left? She was a designer in Paris, but that didn’t really narrow things down. She was a teenage designer in Paris, which narrowed it down a bit but that didn’t mean she had a public face he could track. She hadn’t attended a university yet so he couldn’t search fashion programs in Paris... He sat up straight in his seat as he remembered something Constantine had said about applying for programs. He grimaced trying to figure out if he could trace the lead without Bruce finding out.

Selina looked over at Jason sympathetically. “You okay?”

“Your boyfriend is a mother fucking asshole of an idiot.” Jason growled stalking over to the batcomputer.

Selina shrugged. “I’m not a mother but, I won’t argue with you on the rest. I’m not dating him for his brains. He’s got a good heart.” 

Jason scoffed, “He hides it well. And deep pockets.”

“Oh, very, very deep.” Selina answered with a smile. She brushed off the implication she knew he only partially meant. And he was partially right anyway. She and Jason always understood each other very well. She watched him pounding at the keyboard, his body tense like the pressure of a feather could make him snap. She walked up quietly behind Jason. “You’re going to go anyway aren’t you?”

“Are you going to tell them what I say?” Jason asked staring straight ahead.

“No.”

“Yes.” He said still staring at the computer, not bothering to look at her. He knew she was studying him, analyzing him, without having to see her doing it.

“You sure you will be a help there? Bruce is right, if what I heard about emotions being an opening to the villain is true, you’re… not the best at controlling your emotions. If you can’t, you’ll end up killing the girl instead of helping her.”

“I’ll control them. For her, I’ll do it.” He answered without any hesitation, fully confident in his response.

“Easier said than done.” She said gently. He huffed in response and turned back to the computer. 

“You were listening when we confronted them?” 

She shook her head. “I only came in at the end. All I saw was water. Planning on watching the video later. It promises to be entertaining.” 

“When you watch the video listen to what she said about what they have faced, about what the people there, the kids there, have faced.” He took a long shuddering breath. The _idea_ of it made him want to throw up. The _concept_ made him want to curl into a ball and sob. _Thinking_ about it made him want to level an entire city. He couldn’t imagine what it felt like living through it, knowing it could happen again, or worse. “I’ll figure it out. I’ll drink calming tea. I’ll take up meditation. I’ll start watching kid’s morning cartoons. Fuck, I’ll take tranquilizers.” He turned to stare at her with determination flashing in his eyes, shoulders squared, lips set in a hard line like he was preparing for a fight. “I’ll do what I have to.”

“You’re willing to go this far for her?” She asked with a gentle smile.

“Not just her but… yeah.” He paused his typing and tapped his fingers on the edge of the machine for a moment, centering his thoughts. He squeezed his eyes shut and turned his face fractionally toward her, still looking down but clearly speaking to her. “Have you ever met someone and you just… knew? Like you and B? You just knew there was something there? Maybe not what it is exactly, but something? I can feel it. There is something. I’m supposed to help her, be with her.” He let out a long sigh and faced back toward the keyboard. “And if she doesn’t feel the same, that’s fine, I’ll still help them end their nightmare. But if she does…” His eyes were shining with a purpose she hadn’t seen in them since before. Before everything went to hell for him.

She nodded. If he had finally found something to knock him out of the cycle of anger and hate he kept himself in, she was going to do everything she could to encourage it. “Okay. What are you doing now?”

“Searching for GFIT acceptance records. She’s a fashion designer and Constantine said she turned down an offer from a school here. It makes sense it would be the fashion school.”

“She’s a designer?” Selina asked straightening up.

“Yes.”

“You didn’t mention that before. Are you sure?” She needed to be sure of this. She took her phone out as she spoke searching through her contacts.

“As sure as I can be. She said she was. She said she designed that dress she wore to the gala.”

Selina kept scrolling through her contacts until she found what she was looking for. “Stop that.” She slapped his hands as they sped across the batcomputer’s keyboard. “They’ll track it if you search from here.” She grabbed his arm and wrote a number and email on it. “There. Don’t research her here… or at your place. Go visit Roy… or even better, Ivy. Use her computer. Bruce would never think to look there. More importantly, neither would Tim or Barbara. I’ll make sure it’s okay with her. Ivy might be able to give you something you can take to keep yourself calm, too.”

“What is this?” he looked up from the number suspiciously.

She shot him a conspiratorial look. “You’re welcome. Don’t make me regret this. And tell her I expect a discount for this.” She walked toward the stairs back to the manor. “Let me know when and if you need a distraction. The girls have been feeling a bit cooped up lately.”

<><><><><>

Jason took a deep breath and prepared himself to open the door in front of him. He had no idea how she was going to take seeing him again or if her parents would let him talk to her when he got to the counter. Ladybug had made it quite clear neither she nor Marinette wanted him in Paris. 

Marinette! He smiled to himself. He now had a name to go with the beautiful face from the gala. But would Marinette tell Ladybug he had come back? Of course she would. When she did, would Ladybug kick him out again, or rather portal him out again before he got the chance to make his case? Would she listen to him and let him talk to her? He just needed a few minutes to ask, beg if necessary, Marinette to listen. As the leader, he needed to convince Ladybug of his usefulness, but honestly, he was more concerned with what Marinette thought.

He was knocked out of his thoughts when a father and son excused themselves to get past him and enter the store. He followed them through the door of Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. He was immediately hit with the enticing smell of freshly baked bread and spices as soon as the door opened. The smell calmed him and invigorated him. He could do this.

He looked over to the counter and immediately lost his breath. He could not do this. He turned around quickly and faced the front window, as though he were studying the display. She was working at the register. He honestly hadn’t considered that possibility. He expected her Mom or Dad or even a random employee to be there, not her. How did she have the time? She was already a student, ran her own business, and was at least a part time hero, granted he didn’t know how frequently she went out. In all of his research he hadn’t seen her referenced at all. But even without factoring in hero work, she had a full plate.

He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. He had prepared to charm her parents now, not her. He glanced casually over his shoulder to see what she was doing. She was just finishing with some customers, handing them some change and giving them a friendly smile. God, she looked even more gorgeous than he remembered. Her hair was down, framing her face. She was wearing almost no makeup and she was still absolutely stunning. Her gala dress was replaced with a more casual, fitted top and cardigan, but she still managed to look as elegant as she had at the gala. He had to force himself to look away before she saw him but couldn’t stop himself from sneaking another quick peek at her.

Her friendly smile turned into a beaming grin when she spotted the little boy he had followed in earlier, “August!” She threw her arms wide for the little boy who took off running to her. She picked him up in a tight hug. “How’s my little man?”

He giggled in her arms. “I’m good.”

“How was school today?”

“It was good. We learned to read new words today.”

“That’s awesome. You’ll have to show me next time you come over. I have a book on bunnies in a video game you can read me.” He grinned brightly at her in response. “What brings you and your dad here today?”

“Picking up treats for Mommy. She said the baby wants treats.”

“Ahh. Well we can’t let the baby suffer can we? A few pain au chocolate M. Provance as usual?”

“Yes please, Marinette.”

“Anything else?”

“I’ll take a few other things. Give me just a few moments to look at the options.” His statement took on a furtive note, as though there was a secret meaning behind his words. The tone set Jason on edge and he focused more intently on him. 

“Of course.” She responded happily. She lifted her voice slightly to address Jason, “Is there anything I can help you with Monsieur?” Jason waved his hand without looking back to let her know to ignore him for now. He snuck a look at her between M. Provance and the display case. She had put August down so she could grab a cookie and discretely slip it to him without his dad seeing. August let out a quiet squeal and looked over to see if his dad took notice. When his dad didn’t look over, August gave a big, conspiratorial smile to Marinette and took a bite of the cookie. Jason would have believed M. Provance was ignorant of the entire interaction but he saw him trying to hide a smile and turn his head away from his son when the smile grew too big. 

Jason smiled and shook his head. That must be a familiar game between them. M. Provance gave August a few moments to finish his cookie before he turned back to Marinette. “I think just the pain au chocolate and a few cookies for August for today.” He ruffled his son’s hair. “We’ll probably be back in tomorrow for more. This baby seems to have as much of a sweet tooth as her brother. But we have a few stops to make before we go home so we need to get going.”

Jason heard Marinette grab the cookies and ring them up. He waited until they had said their goodbyes and the Provances had left before he stepped up to the counter. Marinette was wiping off the counter and missed him moving until he was right in front of her. The smile she wore when she looked up froze and fell away as she took a deep breath. Her face immediately paled. “Fuck” she whispered.

He gave her a roguish grin. “There you go making me want to make out with you again.”

She let out a light puff of air and rolled her eyes. “Doesn't take much to get you all riled up does it?”

He quirked his head to the side and his eyes softened, “Not much if it’s you. That's all it takes, just you.” 

She looked at him gaping. Her cheeks turned a rich red color, making him smile even wider. “I know the feeling,” she mumbled barely loud enough for him to hear. She looked down for a few moments. When she looked back up her eyes looked uncertain, almost scared. Shit. That wasn’t a good start. He needed to calm her down, reassure her, distract her. He needed to figure out how to pull out the side he saw at the gala.

When in doubt, go with your strengths. He smiled cheekily at her, “So, what would you recommend? Everything here looks so very good.” He kept his eyes on her as he spoke, never looking at the food.

She shook her head at him and looked down again. Son of a bitch! That was the wrong approach. Why did he go with flirty? She was scared, he should have gone with protective or comforting. What the fuck was wrong with him. Why was he thinking with his libido instead of his head? Not everybody is as fucked up in the head as he is. He had one chance at this. FUCK.

He was so caught up in his self-flagellation he almost missed the impudent look she shot him from under her lashes as she looked up. But he definitely didn’t miss the playful smile she shot him when she looked him in the eye. “Rich boys usually like the cherry petit fours or fraisiers.”

He sighed out a relieved breath and grinned back at her, “And what about delinquents?”

She narrowed her eyes at him, puckered her lips in mock annoyance, and cocked her hip out. “A quickie in the back.” She motioned toward a door leading to another room. “But they usually end up getting their asses thrown out the front by my Papa.”

“Usually?” He questioned with a raised brow.

She leaned back and crossed her arms in front of her. “I don’t need my father to kick someone’s ass. But it makes him feel better to help occasionally.”

He got an indecent look in his eyes and leaned closer to her lowering his voice making it sound even huskier. “I cannot tell you how very, very much I would _love_ to see you kicking someone’s ass again, even if it was mine.”

She let out a huff of air and looked away, trying not to laugh in front of him and definitely trying not to let the blood rush to her cheeks like it wanted to. “Don’t let Constantine know you said that. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“And, no offense sweetheart, but do you think your father could really kick me out?”

She raised her eyebrows at him and got a sharp look in her eyes and a smug smile on her lips. “No offense taken, Sasquatch,” her words were tinged with acid. “You haven’t seen my father.” She smirked at him before calling out loudly, “Hey Papa...” 

A man significantly larger than Jason walked in through the door she indicated earlier. “Yeah mon petit fours?”

Jason’s eyes widened as he watched the honestly gigantic man make his way into the room. He could count the number of people he had to look up to see on one hand. He was larger than them. He stared unsure what to think of this new knowledge. How did that man produce someone as small as Marinette?

Marinette looked at Jason with a smug grin. “I just wanted to check on the timing for the next batch of brioche. This man was asking for a recommendation and I wanted to get him the freshest possible.”

“Oh, they’re just cooling down now. I’ll be right back.” He responded jovially, happily humming to himself as he made his way back to the kitchen.

“How did you come from that? He’s so big and you’re so…”

“My Maman is smaller than me,” she cut him off loudly before he could finish his sentence.

He stared at her blank faced for a few moments then shook his head. “How would that even work? Like, logistically. How would they…” he made a few motions with his hands that Marinette decidedly ignored.

“I will pay you to not finish that sentence and never start it again.” She grimaced and shivered. “Speaking of logistics, how did you get back here anyway? I thought your passports were still in the hotel rooms.” She had already asked Chloe to gather the Wayne’s things to send back to them, via Kaalki.

He smirked and leaned down with his elbows on the counter. “You think I only have one passport? And even if I did, you think flying is the only way the Justice League has to get here?”

She narrowed her eyes at him and leaned forward too. “Fine. That’s fair. What are you doing back here? I understood you were unceremoniously ousted.”

‘I came back for you’ would be the accurate answer but not the one he was ready to admit to. “Well, you know, officially, we didn’t leave the country, so I had to sneak back in so I could officially leave. Also, I was hoping to book an appointment with a certain local designer. MDC? You wouldn’t have heard of her, would you?”

She stared at him wide eyed. Her mind raced through all the ways he could have known. He could have researched her and found out that way. He was one of the bats and they were amazing detectives, but why mention it then? No, he mentioned it because he found her through MDC. So how did he know about MDC? She squeezed her eyes shut as the realization hit her. “Fuck. I knew that was too good to be true.” She huffed and buried her head in her hands. “She was the girlfriend wasn’t she? Damn. I didn’t see her face when I was watching them… The dress. I should have recognized her from the dress.” She pursed her lips in annoyance at herself. She let out a deep breath and looked up at him in resignation. “So the rest of the family is here too?”

“No, they’re still trying to figure out their next move. They haven’t even figured out who you are yet. Selina just told me. She ships us.” He gave her a cocky smile as though that was proof of something.

She leaned forward again and gave him a pointed look. “She’s a thief and dating Bruce Wayne. Her judgement is suspect at best.”

Jason’s smile faltered before turning wry. “I can’t argue with you on that.”

  1. Dupain came into the room at that moment with a tray of warm brioche “Here you are young man” he boomed with a kind smile.



Jason snapped up straight, away from Marinette. “Thank you very much, sir. Those look delicious.” He nodded to M. Dupain with a smile.

  1. Dupain laid his hand on Marinette’s shoulder. “If you need anything else, let me know, mon petit fours.”



“Yes papa,” she said as he walked back into the kitchen.

“I just noticed,” he gave her a shit eating grin, “you recommended petit fours to me when I came in.”

“Yeah?” She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

“And your nick name is petit fours.” He leaned closer until he was close enough for her to feel his breath. “I think it’s your subconscious saying you ship us too.” He pulled away but grinned wickedly at the deep blush that took over her face. “Maybe not so subconscious.”

She kept her eyes glued to the floor, refusing to look at him until her blush had calmed. How dare he do this to her. This was entirely unfair. He had gotten her to blush like three times already. He had a power over her and he was using it to amuse himself. The smug bastard. If it was the last thing she did she was going to wipe that smug smile off of his face. She just needed a few moments to figure out how to do it.

When she hadn’t spoken for a few moments too long, Jason spoke up quietly. “Pixie?” She still kept her eyes trained on the floor. “Marinette, if you want me to stop, if I’m making you uncomfortable, I’ll stop. Just let me know.”

Her head shot back up to look at him with wide eyes. Her eyes softened for a moment before she narrowed them at him again playfully. “I was just thinking that you should be careful. You remember what happened last time you just showed up uninvited. It can happen again.”

He breathed out a sigh of relief. That wasn’t a yes. He wasn’t making her nervous. That was a ‘I want to keep playing.’ She was enjoying the game as much as he was. He narrowed his eyes at her and leaned closer again. “And how do you know what happened before?”

“You don’t think we talk, Hyperion?” She said without missing a beat. “They mentioned it with a note that you’d been asking about me. Apparently, I’ve been on your mind.” She gave him a smug smile.

His smile faltered. Dirty fucking snitches that’s what they are, he cursed to himself. But at least that meant they didn’t just kick her out and cut off all contact. That was good. Not smart, her identity was compromised, but good they are making sure she’s taken care of. He gave her a devilish smile, “You have no idea, Pixie. Almost exclusively you since I met you.” Her eyes widened slightly at the admission and she moved back incrementally, suddenly self-conscious. He noted the shift and quickly changed the topic, “Hyperion?” he asked with a curious look.

“It’s a tree. A big one. You know, tall and dense. The name seemed to fit.” She shrugged and looked down. And she was not about to fucking call him Red Wood again. “Sorry,” she added quietly.

His chest clenched. He didn’t mean to make her feel guilty or sad or uncomfortable… again. He looked down and let out a long breath. If this is where they had to have the conversation, then this is where it would be. He just needed to prepare himself for her response. “They said you didn’t want to see me again. Were they right?” He asked quietly, refusing to look at her.

She let out a sigh and squeezed her eyes shut. “I thought that might be what you got from that.” After a few moments she crooked her head to the side. “I believe Ladybug said I thought it was too dangerous for you to be here until we have ended the threat. It isn’t safe for you right now.”

He furrowed his brow and frowned looking back up at her. She was looking at him with a pleading look in her eyes, desperate for him to understand she didn’t reject him. She just wanted him and them to be safe. As he stared at her, something in the back of his mind tingled, like it was trying to push forward to be acknowledged. He took in her position and the look in her eyes. Something about the expression and the position was familiar to him. Why was it familiar? He stared at her and studied her, really looking at her and the longer he stared the clearer he saw her and the more pieces started fitting into place. 

Those were almost Ladybug’s exact words. How did Marinette know what she had said? There was a reason that he couldn’t quite see yet. There was more going on with Marinette than just being a part time hero. She was close to the superheroes, part of their team, but she was more than a minor part. They trusted her to go on an extremely important mission with Constantine. She personally took the blame for everything happening in Paris, something the leader does. But Ladybug was the leader. Constantine had called her spots but the costume they had seen didn’t have spots… but you know whose costume did have spots? And they could switch between powers. The Catkid had demonstrated that when put on those glasses and created the portal instead of Marinette. So she could have used the glasses and also use another one. And Catkid said cats liked her, meaning Ladybug, and that’s why he followed her. But Alfred hadn’t followed Ladybug, he had followed Marinette. They both had a penchant for tree nicknames for him. And just now, Marinette had said ‘when _we_ have ended the threat.’

With all the pieces fitting into place, it was like he could finally remember Ladybug clearly. She had the same eyes, the same color hair, and the same build as Marinette. As he looked he saw Marinette making the same look she gave him when she begged him to leave a few nights before. His eyes widened as he looked at her. “You’re Ladybug,” he whispered out in awe.

“What?” She asked eyes widening in fear and face paling.

He grinned. Yeah, fuck you Replacement. He was a good detective, too. “You’re…” She jumped onto the counter to clasp her hands over his mouth. Her eyes darting around the room and towards the backroom searching to see if anyone might have overheard. Even seated on the counter, the top of her head still just reached his eyes. He grinned wider. “If you wanted to touch my lips you just had to ask, Sunshine” he mumbled through her hands. He grinned wider at the blush that covered her cheeks again.

She scowled at him as she quickly removed her hands. “Keep your voice down, you fucking ent.” She hissed. “Papa, I’m going out for a bit. Can you cover the front for the rest of the day?”

“Need help down there, Pixie Pop?” He smiled smugly at her.

She swung her legs around to the front of the counter and glared at him again. “I’m fine. I’m not a fucking child.” 

She tensed to jump down but he reached out and grabbed her waist to ease the landing, not so much because he thought she needed it, but more because he was looking for an excuse to touch her again. It had been days since their dance at the gala and his fingers felt like they were aching to feel her. He let his hands linger on her waist even after she was settled on the ground. “Definitely not. But you’re about as big as one.” 

She glared at him again, trying to stare him into an apology but the glare only made him grin wider. They were still locked in their staring contest when M. Dupain poked his head out from the backroom. He eyed the boy’s hands on his daughter’s waist and the way they were staring into each other’s eyes and smiled, “Sure sweetheart. We’re done baking for the day anyway. That brioche was the last thing to come out of the oven. I was just cleaning up. You two go out and have some fun. And be safe.” He gave them a wink and a wave before disappearing into the backroom again.

Jason turned back to Marinette with a cocky smile. “Hear that? He ships us too.”

She scoffed and crossed her arms in front of her chest with a pout, leaning away from him but not moving out of his embrace. “His judgement is suspect too. He ships me with any hero in leather. You’re not special.”

His smile faltered slightly before beaming widely at her again. “So it sounds like you have a type.”

She raised an unamused brow and pushed him away, “No, but Papa does.” She turned with a smirk and walked out the bakery door.

He stared after her for a few moments before chuckling to himself and speeding to catch up with her. He caught up to her at the crosswalk, waiting for the light to change. She didn’t look over to acknowledge him. She seemed completely lost in thought, working things out in her head. Jason followed her quietly, letting her sort out her thoughts and figure out what she wanted to say. He had time to prepare but she had been caught off guard. The least he owed her was the chance to figure out how she felt and what she wanted to do.

When the light changed, they started moving, Marinette still lost in her thoughts didn’t bother to look up. She absentmindedly pulled her sweater closer around her as the wind picked up around them. She needed to figure out how to tell her team Jason was back in town _and_ had figured out her identity. Would he tell the rest of the bats? He had offered to act as intermediary before. Does intermediary include acting as confidant? If he stayed, that was definitely something they were going to have to figure out. And if he promised not to tell, would they trust him to keep his word? And how had he figured her out anyway? The magic should have been enough for him not to make the connection. It was dangerous enough having him in the city without him knowing. How much more did it endanger them now that he knew? He offered to help. What help…” 

Jason grabbed her around the waist and yanked her against him before she could finish the thought. She whipped her head around to see what happened, only then noticing there was a startled man right where she had just been. She grabbed at her hair that was blowing in her face and rushed out an apology to him. The man apologized as well mumbling something about the wind pushing him into her. They smiled politely to each other and continued walking.

Marinette turned back to Jason with an abashed look. “Thank you,” she said quietly. 

He nodded at her, “No problem. You were a bit distracted, pretty lost in thought for a while now. Care to share with the class?” 

She wasn’t sure how much of her thought process she wanted to share with him. Instead, she looked down at her waist and said “I’ve noticed your hands are still on my waist.” She arced her eyebrow at him.

“You know, I’ve noticed that too. Not going to tell me?” He grinned at her but made no effort to move his hands, choosing instead to pull her closer. She rolled her eyes but didn’t move away from him. He laughed as her hair started whipping him in the face as the wind picked up. He ran his hand along the side of her face, running his fingers through her hair to help keep it from blowing around.

Her breath hitched as she stared in his eyes. The warmth from his hand against her face felt comforting and she wanted to nuzzle into it. She closed her eyes and stepped away from him. She didn’t know how they were going to handle him in Paris and it would hurt so much more if she got used to having his arms around her and then had to make him leave. “Um, I was trying to figure out how you figured me out.” She said looking away.

He pulled his hand back and shoved it in his pocket, looking down guiltily. “Probably not something to discuss out here,” he looked around discretely. His eyes landed back on her and he smiled gently at her and stuck out his elbow for her to take, “But the tree themed nicknames were a big clue.”

“The nicknames did it?” She exclaimed loudly.

“There were other things, but that certainly helped.” He laughed.

“One joke and the magic is broken. That’s bullshit.” She looked around them finally noticing they were standing in the middle of the sidewalk. “Come on, we should keep moving.” She wrapped her arm around the proffered elbow and pulled him forward to get him walking again.

“So, where are we going Pixie Pop?”

“Somewhere quiet where we can talk without anyone overhearing us.”

“Already trying to get me alone, huh?” 

She looked over and saw the smug smile was back. Damn it. She looked away. “More like trying to mitigate the damage you’ll do.”

He smirked, “Ha. Jokes on you. There’s no mitigating the damage I can do.” His felt his arm pulled back as soon as he said it. He looked back to see why she had stopped and was met with wide, terrified eyes. He thought through what he said again and realized the implications. “No! No, no, no. Wait. No. That’s not…” He looked around for someplace they could talk. He guided her over to a nearby alleyway and turned her to look at him. He looked at her desperately. He needed her to believe him. He was not going to add to her problems. He was going to help them end this. “I’m not going to do any damage while I’m here. I’m here to help. I’m not going to be a problem. I swear. I won’t let myself. I won’t get akumatized. I’ll control myself and the moment I think I can’t, the moment I think I’m going to create more problems, I’ll leave. I promise you. I swear to you on everything I value. I. Will. Not. Make. Things. Worse.” 

She stared in his eyes for a few more moments, searching for something. She seemed to have found something because she nodded slightly and looked down. “I’ll have to talk to my team about what they think. We make the decision as a team.”

He nodded at her, studying her body language and her down-turned face. She was still uncertain. She still didn’t know if she could believe him and with everything she had said to them a few days prior about how bad it had gotten there, he didn’t know if he blamed her. Allowing him to stay was a large leap of faith for her, for them. They knew who he was and according to them, they knew at least some of what he had done. Logically, it was insane to allow him to stay. But he needed to be here. He needed to help her. 

“Okay.” He looked past her searching for something else to say, some way to get to her. “I want to talk to your team about staying, if you’ll let me. But Marinette,” he hesitantly lifted his finger to her chin to encourage her to look in his eyes. He spoke with all the confidence he could muster in his voice while still keeping it gentle, “I came here to help. I want to help. I want to help Paris… and you. The absolutely _last_ thing I want to do is endanger _you_. I _will not_ allow myself to hurt you.”

He didn’t notice when he had gotten so close to her. Sometime during his speech, he had moved his face so his lips was a few centimeters from hers. He looked deeply into her eyes. She looked back at him with wonder, her lips falling slightly open in surprise.

She reached up and gently caressed his face, stroking his cheeks with her thumbs. He closed his eyes and reveled in the feel of her hands on his face. He leaned down to kiss her but instead of meeting her lips, he yanked his head back at the sound of screaming. They both whipped their heads back towards the street to see what was causing the screams and noticed the wind had picked up considerably. It was now blowing with such force, small children were being blown away. Marinette groaned when her phone pinged a very distinctive ping. She sighed and pushed him away. “Akuma. Just as well I guess. Our first kiss is _not_ going to be in some dingy, dirty back alley.”

Jason smirked and moved closer to her, waggling his eyebrows, “ _First_ kiss?” 

She smirked back at him, letting him get closer again. “What? Is your kissing that bad you think you would only get one?”

He gaped dramatically at her. Oh that’s how she wanted to play this. Challenge accepted. He had an honor to defend. He moved until his face was close enough for her to feel his breath again. “Oh, you’re going to regret issuing that challenge, Pixie.” He whispered huskily.

“Only if I’m right.” She responded coyly. “You might want to close your eyes for this.” She gave him a wink before calling out, “Tikki, spots on!”

Jason watched in awe as she was enveloped in a pink light and fought bringing an arm up to shield him from the intense light. He wanted to see this. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped as she became Ladybug before his eyes. She shot him a smirk, “Later, lover boy.” She threw her yoyo up, catching it on a building a fair distance away and swung away to deal with the akuma.


	8. Let's Go Fly a Kite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team face off against the latest akuma, Stormy Weather, while Jason helps a few civilians he finds.

Ladybug swung through the streets as long as she could before the wind became too powerful for her to keep her trajectory. She only managed to make it about halfway to where the team was waiting before the wind became too strong. She landed on the street with a roll, deciding running would be more effective after the fifth crash into a balcony. She looked down at her yoyo as she ran looking for the dots indicating her team. Chat, Carapace, and Rena were already together under a bridge along the Seine. Bee was quickly approaching from the opposite direction. 

Ladybug felt her progress slow as the wind suddenly picked up significantly. She blinked a few times when she saw a tornado barreling toward her. She gave a surprised squeak and jumped into an alley to get out of the tornado’s path. She breathed a sigh of relief, leaning against the bricks of the alley wall until she started sliding toward the alley entrance. Her eyes widened in surprise as she fell back and was sucked toward the tornado. She threw out her yoyo, capturing a pipe on the other end of the alley and held on as the tornado sucked the dumpsters out of the alley and flung them out into the street, demolishing cars. She stared at the pipe nervously when it started to bend under the pressure of the tornado’s pull on her.

She felt her body slowly lower as the tornado passed by and the winds died down. She took a few seconds to catch her breath before walking out to see the devastation. It looked like a bulldozer carved a diagonal path through the neighborhood. There were buildings destroyed next to buildings that looked completely untouched. There was wreckage everywhere. She could see at least one leg just barely sticking out of one of the wrecked buildings.

She scrunched her eyes shut and took a deep breath to focus herself. He hoped that was the only tornado they had to deal with, but with the way things had been going lately, it was unlikely. If it was following the regular pattern, the akuma would be flashy and devastating. While devastating, one tornado was hardly flashy. What she wouldn’t give for the early days of Mr. Pigeon or even Guitar Villain. That one was kind of fun actually. Even as a dragon, Fang was just a big puppy.

“Waiting on you, LB.” She heard over her com. She looked down and saw Bee had joined the others. She shook her head and started running again.

“Sorry, got caught up in something. Weather is crazy today, don’t you think?” She responded with a fake casualness.

“No idea what you mean, Dudette.” Carapace responded in the same tone. “I’ve just been chillin’ here watching the trees break in the breeze.”

“Screw you both!” Bee seethed. “That fucking wind absolutely destroyed my hair. That bitch is going down.”

“Is it Stormy?” Ladybug asked. It seemed like her MO, but it made no sense. She could do a lot worse. She _had_ done a lot worse years ago.

“Can confirm, it is Stormy. I saw the butterfly land. One guess where.” Rena added. They knew all knew where it was. With Aurora, it was always her umbrella. “One guess who caused it too.” She added bitterly, her eyes darkened with anger.

Ladybug groaned. Most of the people at school had figured out to avoid or laugh at Lila, but Aurora still took everything to heart. She had grown a tougher skin, but criticisms still hurt. The insinuations still hurt. The judgement still hurt. And Lila knew just how to phrase her words to maximize the hurt and capitalize on insecurities. “Fucking bitch.” Ladybug muttered under her breath.

“That’s what I said.” Bee bit out. “And as soon as this is done, I’m killing her.”

Ladybug sighed heavily. “We don’t kill, Bee.” Fuck, now she sounded like Batman. She needed to say something to rid herself of this feeling.

“It won’t be permanent. I’ll do it before the miraculous ladybug.” Bee dismissed her.

Ladybug opened her mouth to reprimand her but that would be what Batman would do. What wouldn’t batman do… “That is very creative thinking, Bee. I love your creativity and passion.” She said focusing on the positives instead.

She jumped down next to the group just in time to see Bee’s face scrunch up in confusion and disgust. She turned on Ladybug and shook her finger in her face. “You… you… Don’t do that. You’re supposed to be our voice of reason.” She slapped Ladybug’s arm. “It’s creepy when you’re all supportive of my bad ideas.”

“If I wasn’t supportive of your bad ideas, I’d never be supportive.” Ladybug quipped before she thought about it. As soon as the words were out of her mouth she cringed. Damn, she was moving closer to Batman again. 

Bee gasped dramatically and opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by Chat. “Yeah, yeah we’ll all just imagine the cutting response. Can we focus please?”

She sighed and turned to Rena, “So how bad is it?”

“At least twenty smaller tornadoes around the city. And by ‘smaller’ I mean just terrifying and destructive instead of horrifying and catastrophic like the one over there.” She motioned vaguely behind them. Ladybug looked warily at the rapidly swirling clouds in the sky. “News estimates that one is above an F-5, which is the highest known level.” She looked up with a haunted look. “If that thing were to start moving, nothing in the city would be standing. Nothing.”

“So why isn’t it moving?” Carapace asked keeping his eyes on the clouds in the sky. “Stormy has never held back before. We know she can do worse. So why isn’t she?”

“You think there’s something more going on?” Chat asked, furrowing his brow.

“Amok?” Ladybug asked looking at him.

Carapace shrugged. “Not sure what is going on. I’m just saying Stormy created a super volcano that almost destroyed us. A few tornadoes is stepping back a bit.”

Ladybug nodded and returned her gaze to the clouds. She ducked quickly when something came flying over the embankment and almost hit her. “We aren’t going to be able to get close to her with this wind. We need a way to neutralize the wind if we want to do anything.” She mused more for herself than the team. Her eyes darted around to her teammates and up at the sky. Her mind started running through potential plans and likely outcomes, backups, workarounds, collateral damage, risk assessment.

“We’re going to have to do it without talking too.” Chat noted. “Once we get up there, nobody is going to be able to hear anything even if we yell.” He turned to them with a small grin. “But, that means we’ll be able to sneak up on her without having to try to be quiet because she won’t be able to hear either.”

Ladybug made a note of his comment, adding it as a potential puzzle piece. She pursed her lips as the pieces started fitting together. It would take all of them working together, acting at the right moments, but lean more heavily on Bee than she wanted to. Not that she didn’t completely trust Bee. She knew Bee could do it, she just hated putting any of her team on the front lines while she watched from a safe distance.

She was putting the last pieces in place when she heard an eerily sweet voice floating towards them. “Come out, come out wherever you are, Ladybug and Chat Noir. I want to play.” Stormy’s voice took on a hard edge. “We can fly a kite.” There was a short pause before her voice returned to the eerily sweet tone. “I’ve already provided the wind and everything.”

Rena gave Chat a deadpan look. “So, not affected by the tornado’s noise and able to make her voice heard over it are part of her powers.”

Chat shrugged sheepishly. “That’s okay. We won’t need it to get the akuma.” Ladybug said confidently. All of the eyes turned to her, ready to take her orders. “Carapace, you’re going to create a shelter for us to hide in on a roof close enough to observe, but not so close the building might collapse under us. Then create a tunnel through the tornado to the eye, but you’re going to need to create it from higher up. Bee, you’re going to need the flying power up so you can fly through the tunnel into the eye. You’re going to drop down on her from above and use Venom to incapacitate her. Rena, on Bee’s mark, you’re going to create an illusion that the tornadoes are gone. The devastation will still be there, but her tornadoes will be gone. Bee will take advantage of her confusion to deliver the venom. Chat and I will keep an eye out for the amok, but this plan is mostly on your shoulders, Bee.”

“If she can talk through the wind then I imagine she can see through it too.” Chat commented somberly, looking around at the buildings near them and trying to remember the buildings around the Champ de Mars or the Trocadero. “We’ll want to pick a rooftop that gives us a view but that won’t allow her to see us.” He pulled up a map on his baton and examined it for a few seconds. “This one should work.” He turned and showed them the building he had in mind. He stared at Rena a few second and cocked his head to the side. “Or, we just have Rena hide us. Can you make that part of your illusion? Hiding us as well?”

“It will get a bit complicated getting the different layers and timing and complexities to work together, but I should be able to do it.” Rena nodded slowly, staring at nothing while she fit the pieces together in her head.

Ladybug nodded. “Good idea, Chat. Rena, can you give us some cover while we get there, too?”

“On it, LB.” Rena jerked out of her thoughts and nodded at her before playing her flute. “Mirage.” They looked around but nothing looked different.

“Uh… Babe?” Carapace started, looking around in confusion.

Rena gasped dramatically. “You doubt me?” Carapace rolled his eyes at her. Rena laughed at him. “It’s like a screen around this area, a screen showing a picture. Anyone on the other side won’t see any changes. We can move as much as we want and they won’t see it.”

“So are we moving or are we just going to hang out here until Stormy gets bored with us and moves on?” Bee asked annoyed with the lack of movement. 

“Come on guys, we’re going to make her late for her spa appointment if we don’t move and Lord knows we wouldn’t want to be responsible for that kind of travesty.” Rena snickered.

“No, you wouldn’t.” Bee snapped. “Those spa appointments are the one thing that keep me from killing you all.”

“On that sweet, teambuilding comment, let’s get started. The sooner we stop this the better.” Ladybug grumbled.

They made their way to the rooftop, occasionally dodging random objects flying. “That was a…” Carapace’s eyes followed the object as it flew out of view. He whipped his head around to Rena, looking at her apprehensively. “There wasn’t a baby in that stroller, right? It was empty?”

“No Babe, there was no baby in the stroller.” Rena assured him. “It’s okay. The baby is safe. It was empty.”

Carapace nodded at her words. “Okay, good. Good. Good.” Rena looked over at Chat and grimaced. Chat gave her a sympathetic look and patted her on the back.

As soon as they landed on the roof Carapace called for shelter and Rena called for a new mirage. They huddled together under the camouflaged green dome and assessed the situation. From their new perch, the scene looked more horrific. The tornado was even more massive than before. Ladybug expected the buildings surrounding the area to start crumbling any second now. If the tornado moved even a few feet in either direction, they definitely would.

“Everyone knows their job. Everyone ready?” Ladybug looked at all of them seriously, looking for any signs of uncertainty before they started, especially from Bee. She was the one taking all the risks. She was the one they needed permission to start from.

Bee looked at her confidently. “I’m ready to go.” She said with conviction. She detransformed, pulled a power up out of her purse, and handed it to Pollen. As soon as Pollen was done, she called on her transformation again and looked back at Ladybug with a smile. “Let’s do this. I’ve got an appointment to get to.”

Ladybug nodded to her. “We don’t want to make her late for that.” Ladybug smiled slightly. “Rena, Carapace, you’re up.”

Rena called for Mirage again, camouflaging the area where the tunnel was going with just a few notes from her flute. Carapace moved forward and called out, “Tunnel.” A green tunnel only they could see formed in the sky linking the shelter and running through the side of the tornado. As soon as he nodded to Bee, she extended her wings and started beating them. She rose slowly off the ground. Thank God they had practiced with the power ups before. Otherwise she would be a jerky, uncontrolled mess right now, plus it was just extremely cool practice, much more fun than the fire resistance training. She gave them one last look before flying into the tunnel. After a few seconds, they heard a beep on their coms indicating Bee was in position. “Rena,” Ladybug cued her quietly. 

“Mirage,” Rena called out again. This time, they all saw the change. The scene looked completely different. Not only was the tornado gone, but the trees appeared to have stopped blowing, standing tall and unbroken. They could almost believe what they were seeing if they couldn’t hear the wind against the outside of the shelter and on Bee’s coms. “She should be able to see what’s in the eye but nothing outside of it. That goes for both of them.” Rena reported. “Nothing except what I want them to see.”

They waited with baited breath for something to change, for the wind to stop or Bee to say something. They stared so hard at the spot where the tornado had been that it was amazing none of them broke any blood vessels in their eyes. Ladybug let out a loud yelp when she felt something touch her. She looked over and saw Chat give her a sheepish look and continue to pat her hand comfortingly a few more times. She let out a strangled sigh and turned back to the spot

The sound of the wind was starting to drive Ladybug crazy. It was a constant reminder that things had not changed. That Bee was still in danger. That she was out there by herself, with no backup. If anything happened to her, they would be too late to help. She was alone and Ladybug had sent her there.

After a few minutes they finally heard a break in the white noise the wind had become. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the easing of the wind as they had hoped. They all jumped and Rena’s illusion disappeared as Bee’s screaming rang in their ears.

“Bee, report!” Ladybug screamed. “Carapace, kill the tunnel. Bee, report. Are you okay? Bee!” Ladybug was getting more and more frantic with each word. She checked her yoyo for Bee’s beacon. It started blinking a few blocks away. “Damn it! I should have sent backup with her. Rena, Carapace please go check on her.”

“I’m fine. I’ll…” she cut off her sentence with a groan. “Yeah, these bricks are definitely hard.” She reported as she slid down the side of the building she had been thrown into. “There’s definitely an amok, by the way. The little bastard can ride the tornadoes and jumped me while I was focused on Stormy.” Bee groaned rolling onto her hands and knees.

“Bee, do you think you can get back here on your own or do you need a bit of assistance?” Ladybug asked gently.

“While I appreciate the offer of my own personal sedia gestatoria, and it is much deserved, I think I can make it myself.” She answered proudly but her voice was ragged.

Ladybug turned her com off and turned to Rena and Carapace. “Can you two go escort her anyway? She’s already weak after what I’m sure was a hell of a hit. If she gets caught in one of those random tornadoes, she might not be able to get out of the way in time.”

“Will do, LB.” Rena saluted her. “Come on Carapace. I’ll race you.” Rena took off running. Carapace gave them a weak smile and followed after her.

“Sending your underlings instead of dealing with me yourself, Ladybug? I’m hurt. I thought we meant more to each other. I just wanted to play. My little pet wanted to play, too. Unfortunately, your little pet Bee just wasn’t strong enough to handle him.” Stormy taunted, laughing eerily. “What do I need to do to get your attention? Should I send my pet after all of your little pets?”

“Right,” Chat grimaced at the thought of the pain he could hear in Bee’s voice. “I think we could use a bit of Luck right about now. What do you think, m’lady?”

Ladybug nodded still looking at the growing tornado. “I think you’re right, Chaton. Lucky Charm!” Ladybug called out throwing her yoyo into the air. She stared in bewilderment at the object that dropped into her hands. “Seriously? What am I supposed to do with this?”

She continued staring at the very distinctive red, full face mask now adorned with black dots that had dropped into her hands. Her mind raced through the possibilities. Was she supposed to wear it? Was Chat? Someone else? Was she supposed to throw it at someone? Did it have a voice changer she was supposed to use? Some kind of analytical software she could use? She could throw it into the tornado and it would become a deadly weapon as the force of the wind launched it. With her luck, it might hit Stormy… but that didn’t feel right. What did Tikki intend?

Chat cocked his head to the side staring at it with doubt as well. “Do you think it means he is supposed to help us with Stormy?”

Ladybug shook her head. “I doubt it. It is never that straight forward for me. If it was you, I would say that was what it meant, but Tikki always makes it more difficult than that.” She huffed in frustration. She looked around them seeing if anything jumped out at her.

“Maybe he has something you need then. Like when Tikki used to give you Lucky Charms to let you know you needed to go see Master Fu?” Chat offered uncertainly.

Ladybug’s eyes lit up. “Yes! That’s it. Great idea, Chat! That is exactly what it means.” She stood up to find Jason. “Hold down the fort. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Let me know if anything changes I need to know about.” He nodded to her, his eyes turning hard as he watched the swirling clouds above her as she swung away.

<><><><><>

Ladybug ran until she was out of Stormy’s tornado’s range then switched to swinging back toward where she had left Jason. She really needed to get his phone number. It would be a lot easier finding him if she could just call him. As it was, she was going to have to hope he stayed near where she left him and ignored his own self-interests to find a safe place to hide. If he was already hunkered down somewhere safe, she would never find him. Of course if he wasn’t hiding somewhere safe, she was going to kill him.

She reached the alley she had left him and pushed down a blush as memories of what had happened, what _almost_ happened, came flooding back. She turned away instead and started jumping from rooftop to rooftop, keeping a keen eye on the alleys and any place that looked like it could be used as a hiding place. She finally found him walking a few blocks away, keeping close to the buildings. She dropped down into an alley just in front of him and reached out to pull him in with her as soon as he passed by.

He whipped his head around in shock, tensing his body ready to fight whoever had grabbed him. He immediately lowered his fist when she saw Ladybug’s raised eyebrow, giving her a dashing grin instead. “Ladybug, Paris’ hero.” He looked her up and down, his smile turning into a smug smirk. “You're quite a bit shorter than I expected.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Red Hood, vigilante of Gotham. You're quite a bit assholier than I expected.” 

His grin grew larger. “I haven’t even gotten into my rhythm yet.” She rolled her eyes at him and punched him hard in the shoulder. He winced in pain. “What was that for?”

“You couldn’t find a better place to hide than on the street? Out in the open? Where you have absolutely no cover or protection?” A bit of concerned annoyance coming through in her voice.

“I don’t know what I’m hiding from and I wanted to see you in action.” He shrugged, wincing only slightly at the movement, his grin firmly in place.

“Tornadoes. Lots of them. Some stronger than others.” She huffed, looking to the alley entrance with apprehension. “Speaking of which, what do you have on you?”

He frowned at her in confusion at the seeming change of topic. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, what do you have on you. What equipment do you have on you?” She prompted him.

“Why do you need to know that?” He asked as he started reaching into his pockets and pulling out weapons. He lined them up on top of the dumpster lid as he pulled them out.

“My Lucky Charm gives me clues or tools to help me defeat an akuma. My Lucky Charm today was this.” She held up the black spotted mask Tikki had provided earlier.

“That’s… that’s my mask. Wouldn’t that mean you need me? It’s telling you to let me help.” He looked at her seriously as he pulled a knife out of his sleeve and placed it on the lid.

She shook her head at him. “No, it is never that straightforward, at least not for me. It is always a windy path to get to the real significance. And whenever it points me to a particular person, it means they have something I need to use; a tool, a weapon, information, something. I just need to figure it out. I’ll know it when I see it.” She watched in surprise and a bit of shock, as he pulled more weapons and tools out of his coat pockets, around his ankles, belt. “That’s… What the fuck? Seriously?”

He shrugged at her. “I travelled light today.”

She stared at him blank faced for a second. “I can’t tell if you’re joking or not and I don’t think I want to know.” He gave her a dashing grin as he pulled out the last few items from a hidden pocket. She looked down to assess the items he had laid out. The last few items turned red with black spots. “There!” She pointed to them. “What are those?”

“These? Trackers. You plant them on someone or something and you can follow them if you have the frequency.” She nodded as he spoke. The pieces of the plan started forming in her mind. “It’s accurate to about 3 feet.” 

She suddenly looked up at him with a calculated grin. “That is very helpful to know. Can I borrow these?” She asked as she grabbed them and dropped them into her yoyo.

“Uh… I guess. What are you going to do?”

“Track someone.” He huffed at her but didn’t challenge her. “You might want to put those away before another tornado comes through and starts flinging them around too. Find somewhere safe to hide and _stay out of trouble_.” She pointed her finger at him.

He moved a step closer to her and gave her another dashing smile as he started tucking weapons away. “Not my strong suit, either part, not going to lie.”

She raised an eyebrow at him and gave him an amused smile even as she groaned mentally at herself. He really shouldn’t look that sexy just putting weapons away. What did it say about her that him tucking a gun into a holster made it hard for her to breathe? “And what is your strong suit?”

He took another step closer. “Being handsome and charming.” He smiled wider as she rolled her eyes at him. “And causing equal and opposite trouble.”

“Well, I have enough trouble to deal with right now, so if you could contain your chaotic good for a bit, I’d greatly appreciate it.” She gave him a wry smile.

His eyes turned hard. “I can help. I can plant the tracker. I have _years_ of experience doing it and massive amounts of training sneaking up on people.”

She gave him a pained look. “You don’t have any protection. Even with magically protective suits one of the team already got hurt. So unless you’re going to tell me you’re invulnerable, I don’t know that it’s a good idea. And we haven’t had the chance to figure out how you’re going to fit into all this and with the team. We haven’t even gotten the team to agree that you are _allowed_ to fit in here. We don’t have time to figure this out now.” Her eyes softened a bit as her expression turned more solemn. “Seriously, there are at least 20 random tornadoes tearing through town destroying buildings and throwing cars, among other things. The one she has shielding herself is worse. Please, find some place safe to hide until we take care of this.”

He looked up ready to assure her that he has fought worse but instead, caught her eyes, which was a fatal mistake. She eyes were saturated with worry and fear for him. He’d seen that look before. He had that look when he was still Robin and Dick would do something stupid, more stupid and self-sacrificing than usual. 

He gave out a deep sigh and dropped his head. He looked back up to her, his eyes took on a concerned look. He stepped closer to her again, close enough now to pull her close, to lean down and kiss her if they wanted. He reached to caress her face instead. He nodded slowly. “Alright. I’ll hide. But you need to promise to be careful. I didn’t finally find you just for you to die on me.”

She stared into his eyes and leaned into his hand. She opened her mouth to respond when something from the corner of her eye caught her attention. “Look out!” She screamed tackling him to the ground. They landed just as a table shattered against the wall they had been standing in front of. She stared at the table in dismay and back out to the street, searching for the tornado that had caused the table to fly at them. She inched closer to the opening to look around, but the tornado had already passed. “I really have to go. Get somewhere safe! That table means there is a tornado in the area. And these are magical tornadoes so they don’t follow normal tornado rules. Just because it passed already doesn’t mean it won’t come back.” He nodded to her just before she swung away.

He stood there for a few minutes looking in the direction she had swung. He looked out to the street in front of him assessing the potential danger and trying to figure out the best place to hunker down for the storms, ideally some place that would still allow him to watch the fight. The alley was fairly safe but exposed and he didn’t know how much longer it would be safe, especially if Marinette was right about a tornado coming. Plus, there was no way to see the fight and he was dying to see her in action.

He considered his options for a few seconds before realizing he didn’t know where she would be fighting. He gave a disappointed curse realizing he would have to wait to see her actually fight. He might as well follow her instructions and find a better place to hide. He walked a few blocks before he saw signs of a tornado.

Whereas the street he had been on looked pristine, when he turned the corner, there was carnage. Cars had been thrown on their sides, bikes were thrown through windows, balcony tables and chairs were laying broken against buildings, and more than a few bodies were laying under some of the wreckage. He walked near the bodies, searching for signs of life. He sighed as none of them moved. He started walking again when he heard crying and scratching. He followed the source to a mailbox in the side of a building.

He ripped the mailbox door and was met with wide, terrified green eyes, familiar green eyes. “You’re the kid from the bakery.” He said in English before he could catch himself. The kid’s eyes got impossibly bigger and started babbling to him in French. Damn it! Jason cursed to himself. This was going to be a crash course in French. He was fluent at some point, years ago, but disuse had dulled his memory. He thought about it for a few seconds, mentally switching to French. He just had to think of this like a mission and access those parts of his brain… quickly.

“I saw you in the bakery. I’m Marinette’s friend Jason. We need to go somewhere safe. Are you okay? What is your name?” He tried to give the kid a soft smile, making himself look as unthreatening as possible for a 6 foot, 225 pound man could seem. Kids in Gotham knew he was dangerous but only against the bad guys, not kids. He didn’t think this kid would be able to differentiate. 

The terrified look lightened only slightly as he responded. “You know Marinette?” Jason smiled bigger as he nodded in response. The assurance seemed to work as the kid relaxed a bit and looked around. “My name is August. Have you seen my father? He put me in here when the wind came.”

Jason looked away and tried to hide his grimace. He had seen a few men on the street, none of them alive. “You know, I’m sure he found a place to hide from the big wind. I’m sure he’s safe somewhere. We can find him after Ladybug fixes everything. We can have Marinette call him to let him know where you are, but now that we have a chance, we should find someplace safer. Is it okay if I get you out?”

He waited until August nodded at him before lifting him out of the box. He set him down on the ground but August clung to his arms. Jason smiled comfortingly at him and settled him on his hip instead. “Okay, August. Let’s find a place to hide, yeah?” August gave him a watery smile.

He started walking, holding the little boy close to his chest, shielding his head so he couldn’t see what was happening around him. He just needed a safe place for them to hide, a building with a basement ideally. Like he would know that from here he grumbled to himself, and he didn’t have the time to get it wrong. Fuck! He should have done better reconnaissance, or any, before he came. They had walked another block and still hadn’t seen anything that looked promising. Pretty soon he was going to have to take what he could get. The wind was starting to pick up again, giving him the terrifying feeling that another tornado was headed their way.

He growled in frustration and looked around him again concentrating on the buildings. Surely there was a metro somewhere, right? He hadn’t seen a sign for blocks. They passed by a pile of cars and paused hearing pounding and screaming from under the cars. He searched for the source of the sound. His eyes widened in horror as he realized where it was coming from. A young girl had gotten trapped between a building wall and the pile of cars and was beating the cars trying to get free. He set August down with a reassuring smile and pushed the car on top out of the way. He reached down and grabbed the girl. She looked up at him with wide eyes and screamed.

He flinched at the scream and sighed in acceptance. “Yeah, I guess I deserved that. I’m here to help not take you. It isn’t safe out here and it’s about to get much less safe.”

She looked at him suspiciously, ready to say no to the giant of a man with scars who had grabbed her, until a head popped out from behind him. “Manon!”

“August!” She reached out to hug him but Jason grabbed her instead. 

“Hugs after we are safe. It is getting worse by the second.” He looked around for a good place to hide with the two kids. Nothing much around them, a few shops, a few restaurants, a wine shop, a bookstore… Wait! He instantly started moving. When he finally reached the door, it was locked. “Who the fuc… why would you bother locking your doors during this?” he exclaimed loudly. “Okay, move over here for a second… and don’t do this yourself.” He rammed his elbow through the door’s glass, shattering the glass panel near the handle. He reached in to open the door, scratching his arm as he did. He hissed in pain but hid it from the kids.

“Why here?” Manon called loudly to be heard over the wind.

“Because wine shops have wine cellars.” Jason explained calmly. “Now in you go.” He pushed her through the door, following with August close behind.

<><><><><>

Ladybug landed inelegantly next to the team, taking a few seconds to steady herself against the sudden lack of wind. “I have a plan.” She smiled at them.

“Well then let’s hear it.” Rena encouraged her.

“Something better than the last one would be appreciated.” Bee grumbled.

“Sucks for you. Exactly the same plan as last time… kind of.” Ladybug smirked at them.

The sound of four people groaning at the same time made Ladybug smile even wider. “Dudette, maybe you missed how it turned out last time, but we lost.”

“I have faith this time will be luckier.” She smiled cheerily. “And we’re going to build failure into the plan… or at least the appearance of failure.” She looked over at Bee with a conspiratorial smile. “You’re going to lead them into a false sense of security thinking we are trying the same thing again, but the real goal…” she leaned in closer as she pulled the trackers out of her yoyo, “… is to plant one of these.”

“And what the fuck are those?” Bee demanded unceremoniously. “And just how the fuck are they supposed to change anything?”

“These my lovely pain in the ass, are tracking beacons. Carapace, you will do the exact same thing as before. You will create a tunnel from above through her tornado. Rena, you will create the camouflage illusion on the tunnel, Bee, and yourself this time. And you will need to use your flying power up.” Rena gave her a skeptical look.

“Bee, you’ll have to use my or Chat’s flying power up. Apologize to Pollen that it isn’t in her flavor. I suggest using mine. I don’t think Pollen will appreciate the cheese power up.” Bee huffed out a loud breath at the thought of that. Pollen would not react well to the disrespect. Chloe was going to have to lavish her with praise for days to make up for it.

“I hope you know what you are doing. Pollen will _not_ appreciate this.” Chloe grumbled as she crossed her arms over her chest and turned her head away.

“I understand and please explain how eternally grateful we are for how magnanimous she is in agreeing to this.” Ladybug rolled her eyes as she said it. “You’re going to pretend to try to take her out with venom again but it is a cover for Rena to plant this on her.” She said holding up the tracker before tossing it over to Rena. “And for you to actually get the amok with the venom instead.

“Rena, you stay camouflaged and try to plant that on her. If anything happens to Rena while she is planting it, Bee, you take advantage of her distraction to plant yours on her.” Ladybug tossed another tracker to her. “Once you have them planted, notify me and Chat. We will take her from there from below. Your sole focus will be the amok. We need you to restrain it until we can find the possessed item and free the feather. Hopefully, when we deakumatize Aurora, she’ll know where the item is or at least what it is.”

Chat eyed Ladybug suspiciously, slowly nodding as he picked out the key words he needed to figure out her plan, all the pieces quickly falling into place. “We’ll have to act quickly,” he warned her.

Ladybug nodded at him, “Getting the umbrella will be the top priority. Whichever of us sees an opening, we take it.”

“Hey Wonder Twins, care to let the rest of us mere mortals in on your part of the plan?” Rena asked unamused. Honestly, it was freaky how they could read each other’s minds sometimes. One of them would say one part of an idea and the other would act on it before anyone else had even comprehended what they had said in the first place. She understood that they had been partners for years now but if she didn’t know better, she would swear there was more to it than that. And that asshole cat better not be trying to replace her as Marinette’s best friend. She could and would skin a cat.

“We’re going to go into the sewers. We’ll use the trackers to know exactly where she is…” Chat started to explain.

“Within three feet.” Ladybug corrected. Chat gave her a questioning look. “He said there is a three foot uncertainty radius.”

Chat nodded, “…approximately where she is and get right under her. I’ll use Black Hole to create a hole under her, dropping her into the sewers with us.” Chat finished with a smile.

Carapace nodded at the explanation. “Removing her from the tornadoes. As long as you act quickly, her biggest asset is gone. Good thinking, Dudette.” 

Ladybug smiled at him. “Thanks Carapace. We’ll need you to get as close as you feel is safe as well. We’ll follow you on our maps so we can get close to where we will need to be.” She turned to the rest of the team, her face turning serious. “Okay, we have the plan, everyone knows their parts. Let’s get out there. Good luck guys. Keep us updated.”

<><><><><>

“Why are we down here?” Manon asked annoyed.

“That’s what you do in a…” Jason started but quickly realized he never learned the French word for tornado. Honestly, why would he. It wasn’t something they experienced. “…tornado.” He finished in English.

Manon let out a critical huff and provided the French word for him. “Thanks” he grumbled.

“Why?” August scrunched his nose.

“I know you guys aren’t familiar with them, but tornados destroy things, like buildings. So you go underground. It’s safe underground.”

“Like the sewers?” August asked.

Jason cocked his head to the side to consider that. “That also would have worked.” He nodded slowly. “But we’re going to stay here. We’re not going to risk moving. We will be safe here.”

“Not worth getting dirty. It’s just Stormy Weather.” Manon showed them her phone which was playing the news. “They’ve fought against her before. They know what to do.” She continued flippantly. Jason stared at her trying to figure out if it was an act or not. He’d seen enough kids acting tough so they didn’t seem vulnerable and comfort the kids around them, to know it when he saw it. It was a constant for the older kids on the street when he was growing up. The older kids did it for the younger kids. It was a rite of passage.

She was more scared than she was letting on but Jason couldn’t tell how scared she was. August’s reaction to her was immediate though. He started nodding at her, thinking over what she was saying. The concern in his expression lessening with each nod. Manon continued to watch the news program as Jason took a seat, pulling out his phone as well. 

After a few minutes, Manon sat near him and sighed. “Poor Aurora. She’s such a nice person, too. I wonder what happened this time.”

“Trying to destroy an entire city isn’t what I’d call nice.” Jason scoffed.

Manon shrugged, keeping her focus on her phone. “It’s not really her though. It’s the akuma. It makes you do things you would never have wanted to do. It takes over.” She paused for a few seconds seeming to stare past her phone. “And you don’t remember what you’ve done after. You have to watch it later. It’s like you’re watching a stranger, but it’s you. It’s so wrong.”

She said it with such conviction, so much confidence, like she was speaking from personal experience. Jason felt his stomach sink with the realization. “Have you ever become an akuma?” He hated saying the words but he hated the look that crossed her face when he asked even worse. The look of guilt and horror, the same look he saw in the mirror when he would get a flash of something he had done immediately after getting out of the pit.

“Yeah… more than once.” She said it quietly, still looking at her phone in an unseeing stare.

“Not as much as me,” August said sadly, taking a seat between the two of them.

“You’ve been an akuma too? Christ, you’re still a baby!” Jason exclaimed loudly.

“I’m not a baby!” August cried out.

“You were when you were first akumatized.” Manon pointed out.

August shrunk in on himself. “It’s okay August.” Manon reassured him, pulling him into a side hug. “I swear there are more people who have been akumatized than haven’t been and it’s not like you’ve been akumatized _that_ many times.”

“More than you.” He said sadly.

“Well yeah, but not like M. Pigeon numbers.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Or is it M. Rat now?”

“Rat for a while before he stopped getting akumatized.” August confirmed. “I liked him. He was fun to watch.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Just hold up a second. There’s a guy that turns into a pigeon or rat that has been turned into an akuma dozens of times?” Jason asked shaking his head. What the hell kind of demented Disney movie was going on here?

“No, he controls the pigeons or rats. He is a big animal lover and anytime he thinks someone is abusing the animals, he gets upset. Like really upset. Akumatization level upset. Really nice guy normally.” Manon explained calmly.

Jason nodded thinking over what she had said, so more Steven King than Disney. “How many kids have become akumas?” Jason asked a bit scared of the answer.

“How young are you looking for? August was the youngest, he was like what 6 months old when you first got akumatized?” She looked over to him for confirmation. August shrugged. “I was about his age when I first got akumatized. He doesn’t go for kids as often as adults, but he doesn’t avoid us. I don’t think. Maybe this is holding back. How would we know?” As she spoke her eyes got darker and darker, anger starting to show through her detached façade.

“Holy fu…” he looked down at August and immediately clamped his mouth shut. “Uh… that sounds… traumatic.”

Manon let out a loud scoff. “Not nearly as traumatic as living through the other side of it.” Jason looked at her curiously, encouraging her to say more. “Most kids I know have died at least once. They’ve lost a parent right in front of them, some while they were holding them. They’ve lost friends, watched them die or get hurt. Most have experienced all three.” 

Jason watched her eyes take on a haunted look as she spoke. “And if you’ve been akumatized more than once it’s like people are just waiting for you to get akumatized again. Put them through that again.”

“Yeah.” August agreed quietly. His whole body seemed to collapse in on itself in guilt. Just looking at him hurt Jason. All he wanted was to bring his mood back up.

“Not everyone though, right? Marinette seems to like you.” Jason reassured him.

“Yeah, she likes me. But that’s Marinette she likes everyone.” August waved him off.

“Pft, not everyone.” Manon scoffed quietly. Jason raised his eyebrow at that. He’d have to ask Marinette about it later. She didn’t seem the type to dislike people enough that a random kid would know about who she liked or didn’t. He knew she had an issue with Constantine… and apparently Batman, who didn’t though, and the rest of the Gotham vigilantes… and the entire Justice League… okay, maybe it made sense that the kid would pick up on some things.

Instead, he turned back to August. “Maybe, but she seems to like you. She must really think you’re a good kid. I mean she was sneaking you treats at the counter. I’m sure she doesn’t do that for just anyone.”

Manon whipped her head to August. August almost jumped when she yelled at him, “She gives you treats?”

<><><><><>

“How do we always end up down here?” Chat whined eyeing a patch of slick green something oozing down the sewer walls.

“Lucky I guess. It’s where we do our best work after all. We have a pretty good track record down here.” Ladybug quipped without looking up from the map display on her yoyo. “We need to take a left up here. We’re getting close.”

“You think it’s going to work this time?” Chat breathed out. He had faith in their teammates but he knew Bee was not working on full capacity. She took the failure hard. She would fight hard, but when Chloe doubted herself, it took a while to build her confidence back up. And he couldn’t help. He was stuck down in the sewers only able to hear their reports. If anything happened, he and Ladybug wouldn’t be able to do anything or even know what happened.

“I have faith. Our team can do this and they will. Bee always rises to the challenge.” She assured him as though she could read his true concern. 

“Mirage.” They heard Rena say over the coms.

“Tunnel is up.” Carapace reported.

“Rena and I are going in. You guys close or are we going to have to buy time for you slowpokes?” Bee asked.

Ladybug rolled her eyes at Chat but smiled along with him. Bee was snarking at them. That was a good sign. “We’re close. Don’t wait on us. We’d hate to hold you guys back.”

“We’re good enough to pick up your slack.” Bee quipped, the accompanying hair flip evident in her tone.

“Right behind you on 3.” Rena paused before counting down. “3, 2, 1, and go.”

Chat shook his head and took a deep breath. It would be fine. They would get the job done. Alya and Chloe might fight like sisters but they defended each other like sisters too. They would have each other’s backs and together they were a force to be reckoned with. His anxiety would lessen significantly if he could just see what was happening. It was the being in the dark that made it all so much worse.

Chat and Ladybug made their way toward Carapace’s tracker in a tense silence, hands flinching towards their coms every time a grunt or groan or squawk came over the coms. Their footsteps hesitated when they heard Chloe whisper venom. Ladybug glanced back to him. They both took another deep breath and nodded to each other. Things were about to happen and they needed to be prepared. They were close to Carapace’s tracker already but moved with more urgency to close the gap. 

“We’re here.” Ladybug reported over the coms.

“Working on it.” Bee grunted.

“Behind you!” Rena screamed. They heard some more grunting and the second tracker appear on the yoyo and baton screens.

“We got her, Rena. Go help Bee.” Ladybug ordered. “Ready, Chat?” She braced herself and settled into a battle ready position when Chat nodded at her and moved closer to the spot on his screen.

“Black hole,” he whispered. Speaking at full voice seemed irreverent in the quiet darkness of the sewer. He took a deep breath and took a running start. He planted his baton, extending it as he rose in the air. The highest point of the arc hit exactly where the tracker marked. He touched the ceiling as he sailed by, allowing his magic to create a large hole that went through to the street above. He landed with a roll. He pivoted as soon as he came to a stop, holding his own battle ready position, ready to pounce the moment he caught sight of Stormy.

He didn’t have to wait. Before he had even pivoted Stormy was already in sight, falling toward the sewer water. Chat jumped at her reaching to grab her umbrella before she could start another tornado down there. In their confined area, a tornado would be too strong and there would be no place to hide.

Stormy pulled her umbrella out of his reach just as he was about to lay his fingers on it. She held it above her head, giving him an irate look. “Stupid cat! Did you think that is all it would take to defeat me?” She sneered.

She jerked back in shock as a yoyo wrapped around the umbrella and yanked it from her hands. “Yes, yes we did.” Ladybug responded with a self-satisfied smirk as the umbrella landed in her hands.

“NO,” Stormy screeched. She reached out for the umbrella but fell to the floor instead when Ladybug broke the umbrella and a little purple and black akuma fluttered out of it.

“No more evil doing for you little akuma. Time to de-evilize.” Ladybug twirled her yoyo around in a circle a few times and threw it up to capture the akuma. Ladybug pulled the yoyo back to her and opened it again, allowing the now white butterfly to flutter out harmlessly. “Bye, bye little butterfly.” She waved peacefully at the butterfly.

While Ladybug was purifying the akuma, Chat ran over to Aurora. “Hey, Aurora. How are you doing? Are you okay?” He asked looking at her with concern. Aurora was a good person to begin with and had a fairly good temperament. She had been taking classes on how to control her temper on top of that, so whatever happened it must have been pretty bad.

Aurora looked around in a daze and held her head for a few seconds before she could respond. “Chat Noir?” She examined his face for a few moments to confirm it was him. She looked around until she saw Ladybug releasing the purified akuma. Her shoulders slumped and her face fell. “Oh no,” she whispered to the ground. “I did it again didn’t I?” She looked up at Chat with pained eyes. Chat gave her a sympathetic smile and rubbed her back. “How bad this time?” she looked back to the ground again trying to brace for the answer.

“I’m not sure. It was a few tornadoes but it could have been a lot worse.” He gave her a side hug when he saw some tears fall down her cheeks. 

“We got the amok tied up, Ladybug.” Rena reported. “And you might want to hurry and find the item, Bee got hit this time and worse than I did.”

Chat looked up at Ladybug. She looked at him questioningly. He looked over Aurora, trying to find anything that stood out. When he didn’t see anything, he looked through her bag. His eyes lit up when he saw what he was looking for. He grabbed the kite and threw it over to Ladybug.

Ladybug looked at Chat questioningly. He nodded to her letting her know he would handle Aurora for now and meet her up top. She made a motion with the kite, letting him know she would purify it topside, so Aurora didn’t have to see it.

Once Chat nodded in silent understanding, Ladybug nodded back and spoke into the coms. “Got it. We’ll be right there.”

Chat leaned in closer to Aurora and lowered his voice conspiratorially, “Personally, I think you might have been holding back. We both know you could have done far, far worse but you didn’t. That takes a lot of strength.”

She looked up at him with wide eyes. “You really think so?” Hope permeated her voice and expression.

Chat smiled at her. “Yeah, I do. I think you were trying to give us a clue about where the amok was as well.” She looked up at him with wide eyes. 

“There was an amok too, huh?” She gave him a weak, guilt laden smile. “Guess I should have expected that by now.” 

“Yeah, but we took care of it. Now, ready to get back topside?” She gave him a weak smile and nodded. “Okay, hold on.” He grabbed her into a princess hold and jumped through the hole, using his baton to give him more height.

As soon as they landed, they heard Ladybug call out “Miraculous Ladybug.” He let out a relieved breath and turned back to Aurora who was watching the miraculous ladybugs swarming throughout the city fixing all the damage with an apologetic look.

Rena joined them with a sympathetic smile for Aurora. “Hey, Aurora. Sorry this happened to you. You are a good person. We know you would _never_ have wanted this. You didn’t deserve this. You are a victim too.” She gave Aurora a hug.

Aurora pulled back and looked at both of them with a smile that was a little stronger than the last one. “Thank you and thank you for saving me.”

Rena gave her a smile. The rest of the team came up behind Rena, all smiling at Aurora, except Bee who leaned against a recently returned car and examined her nails. “We done here or what?”

Ladybug scowled at her and turned back to Aurora. “Do you need a ride to your next destination?”

Aurora shook her head. “No, I’ll walk. Thank you though. I think I need the space to process.”

The team smiled at her and nodded in understanding. Aurora waved to them and walked toward her office.

Chat looked at Ladybug with a grin on his face. “Hey m’lady, ask me how I think we did today.”

Ladybug groaned. She knew that look. That was never a good look. She knew she was going to regret it but she couldn’t deny him this simple pleasure, something to bring his mood back up. “Okay Chat, how do you think we did today?”

His grin grew even wider and his eyes lit up with excitement that she was willing to play along. “I was _blown away_ by our performance.” He started laughing at his own joke. Ladybug groaned even louder and hid her face in her hands, but Bee smacked him upside the head hard enough for his head to jerk forward making him laugh even harder.

“Thank you!” Rena groaned.

“What are you guys doing now?” Ladybug asked suddenly nervous.

“Meeting at the hotel?” Bee shrugged.

“Meeting at the office in… crap 12 minutes.” Chat groaned. “I need to go.”

“Homework,” Rena and Carapace said at the same time.

“Okay, are you guys free tonight to talk?” Ladybug asked.

They looked at each other uneasily. “About what?” Rena asked suspiciously. 

Ladybug grimaced and clasped her hands together, swinging them in front of her a few times. “I _have_ to go, LB. Spit it out.” Chat urged her.

“Red Hood found me today. Me, me.” They turned suddenly serious, all straightening their stances. 

“How bad is it?” Carapace asked.

“Not bad, I don’t think. We can discuss it tonight when you have more time. I don’t think the rest of the family knows, just him. But we have things to discuss.” Ladybug confirmed.

“I need to leave now or I won’t be able to get out tonight. See you guys at 9.” Chat called over his shoulder as he vaulted away.

“You heard the cat, we’ll talk at 9.” Carapace declared. “See you then.” He and Rena jumped away together.

Bee looked at her and shook her head. “Unbe-fucking-lievable. Only you.”

Ladybug sighed and gave her a guilty look, “Sorry.”

“Sorry my exquisite ass. Knowing you this is going to be exactly what we need and it will be over in a few months like some kind of cosmic Lucky Charm and all because you got one of the most eligible bachelors in the world tottering after you like a lovesick puppy.” Ladybug’s jaw dropped as she watched Bee jump away.

“He is _not_ tottering after me! But you are right, it is exquisite.” Ladybug yelled after her. 

Bee turned her head to yell over her shoulder. “Of course I’m right… about both parts. Now go give him a kiss and ask him if he has any hot, rich, kinky friends for me.”


	9. Even Brats Have Good Ideas Sometimes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason witnesses the Miraculous Ladybug effects and the Miraculous team discuss whether or not Jason gets to stay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are a bit fucking crazy in America right now so I thought I'd offer a bit of an escape for a little bit.

“Are you sure this is safe?” Jason looked up and down the street, staring in wonder as the world around them had been put back together. If he hadn’t been here himself, he would have never believed they had just experienced a series of devastating tornadoes. Buildings that had collapsed were put back together. Cars that had flown through walls were back in their parking spots. Walls and sidewalks that had been painted in blood were now back to showing only their regular dirt.

“Yes,” Manon said in an exasperated tone, as though it was something a child… well, a child even younger than her, should know. “The ladybugs mean the fight is over and everything is set back to normal.”

“Yeah, okay smartass. I’m new to this. Watch the attitude,” he grunted at her. 

“What does ‘smartass’ mean?” August asked, looking up at him curiously.

Jason clamped his eyes shut and groaned. Marinette was going to kill him if she found out he taught one of the kids she watched to curse. “It means nothing. It’s an American word you shouldn’t use. In fact, never use that word. You don’t want to be like an American, right?” he rushed out. Desperate to change the subject he turned back to Manon. “Just like that, everything is fixed?”

“Just like that.” She nodded at him.

He shook his head and looked at the kids for a few seconds. “So… any idea how to contact your parents?”

“I know my mom’s number and you can take August to Marinette’s place. She’ll know how to get ahold of his parents. Duh.” She rolled her eyes at him as she pulled out her phone and called her mom. Jason huffed at her but nodded. Right. The brat had a point.

“Manon!” He heard yelled from down the street. He whipped his head toward the sound. That was incredibly fast for her mom to find her. When he found the source he smiled. Marinette was racing toward them. 

“Marinette!” Manon exclaimed in a relieved voice and ran toward her. As soon as Marinette reached her, she grabbed her into a hug. Manon hugged Marinette back just as tightly, starting to shake. 

Marinette looked over and motioned for August to come over too. “And August! Are you guys okay?” She gathered him up in a tight hug, too. “What happened to you guys? Did you find somewhere safe to stay?”

August latched around her neck and started crying. “It was terrible! I heard Daddy…” He started crying harder unable to finish the sentence. Marinette nuzzled into his head and bounced him as much as she could while still holding onto Manon. She whispered hushing noises into his hair.

“That must have been terrible, August. I’m so sorry you had to experience that. We will give him a call and let him know where you are so he can come and give you a hug himself.” August nodded as he sniffled, keeping his head firmly nestled in her neck.

Jason frowned in concern for August and Manon. They had both been a lot less emotional a few minutes ago. Jason had thought August was fine but as soon as Marinette appeared, it was like all his walls broke down. Even Manon was acting differently now. She was a lot more sullen and quiet than she had been seconds ago. As soon as she was safe in Marinette’s arms, her bravado was forgotten and she started shaking from the experience.

“I’m sorry, Marinette.” August whispered to her. “I’ll be stronger. I don’t want to become another akuma.” His tone was so broken, Jason’s chest squeezed in response.

Marinette immediately stopped bouncing him and made him look her in the eyes. “Nobody is strong all the time, August. You have a right to be upset. You have a right to be angry. You have a right to be scared. You do exactly whatever it is you have to do to survive and keep yourself safe and okay. However you deal with it is okay. If you need to cry, you cry. If you need to yell, you yell. There is no wrong way to respond.”

“But what if I get akumatized again?” He looked at her with watery eyes.

“Then Ladybug will save you. And she would never, _never_ be disappointed in you, August. None of us would ever be.” Marinette reassured him, holding him as tightly as she dared.

“Right,” Manon whispered as she shifted so she was hugging him too.

Jason felt his chest tighten again. He could not fathom the pain the kids have had to go through, everyone in Paris had to go through. He couldn’t begin to comprehend how much guilt Marinette and everyone on her team must carry with them each day, knowing the people of Paris were experiencing this. He didn’t care what he had to do, he was going to help Marinette no matter what he had to do. If her team decided he couldn’t be in Paris, he would set up a place right outside Paris and help from there. He wasn’t going to let them deal with this alone.

He walked into the position Manon had just left and to add his support. He gently placed his arm around Manon and August and pulled Marinette into his chest. He leaned close to her ear and whispered, “You did good out there… and with them. You’re amazing.”

She leaned into his chest and said “Not good enough” so quietly, Jason almost missed it. She relaxed into his chest and fought off the tears in her eyes as well. He rested his chin on her head and pulled her even closer. “Yes, it was,” he reassured her quietly.

After a few minutes like that, she pulled her head away just enough to look up at him, eyes glistening with gratitude. “Thank you for watching out for them. Thank you for protecting them.” Jason gave her a soft smile. He reached up and stroked her cheek with his thumb. Marinette closed her eyes and leaned into his touch.

August looked between the two of them a few times with an interested look. “Are you two in love? Are you going to get married?”

Marinette’s eyes shot open and she straightened up, leaning away from Jason. Jason grinned at him, but Marinette’s face turned bright red. “You’re too young to ask questions like that.” Marinette said a few octaves higher than was natural for her.

Manon grinned mischievously at her, “But I’m not.”

Jason laughed loudly at her and ruffled her hair. “I like you, kid.” Manon gave him a proud smile.

“No. No ganging up on me.” She gave Manon a mock glare. Manon stuck her tongue out at Marinette. “And, I think it’s time to call your Dad, August. You’ve already called your mom, haven’t you, Manon?” Manon gave her a nod. “Good. Excuse me just a minute.” She handed August to Jason. August instantly leaned his head against Jason’s shoulder, as though Marinette’s approval made Jason trustworthy, and in a way, Jason supposed he was right. If she trusted him, he must be, right?

“And maybe when you’re done you can tell me why he gets treats and I don’t!” Manon gave Marinette a look that exactly mirrored her mom’s expression when she caught an interviewee in a lie. The look she gave that meant she knew she had caught them.

Marinette opened her mouth to say something but snapped it shut quickly when she couldn’t think of what to say. She turned to Jason and stuck an accusatory finger at him. “What did you do?” She demanded.

He grinned wider at her and threw his arm around Manon’s shoulders. “She deserved to know the truth. It’s going to take 10 cookies…” Manon coughed lightly. “…15?” He looked down at Manon. She nodded at him. “15 cookies next time to make it up to her.”

She glared at him for a few seconds. His grin never wavered the entire time. Finally, she threw her hands up. “Fine. Compensation cookies it is.” She walked away to call August’s Dad. “But they’re going to be ones he…” she narrowed her eyes at Jason, “… helps me make.”

Jason opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by Marinette turning away to speak to M. Provance. He settled for grinning lovingly at her back and squeezing Manon’s shoulders in triumph with his one armed hug.

After a few moments Marinette returned to take August back in her arms. Jason handed him back gently. August curled into Marinette’s neck with a sad sigh. “Your Dad is just a few blocks away. He will be here in just a few minutes okay?” She asked August quietly.

August nodded, keeping his head nestled in her neck and his eyes closed. “And what are the plans for you, Manon?”

She shrugged at Marinette, “I’ll be fine. I’m just going to walk home.”

Marinette nodded at her with an understanding look. “Okay, as soon as August’s Dad gets here we’ll walk you home.”

Manon rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated breath. “I’m fine. I walk home alone all the time. It’s not that far. I’m not a baby,” she snapped at Marinette.

“That’s because you keep ditching the people your Mom sends to pick you up. And, you know that doesn’t do anything to change my mind, right?” Marinette gave her a deadpan look.

“Okay fine, whatever.” She crossed her arms and looked away with a significantly softened expression.

“You know what? No more time with Chloe. I have to deal with this,” Marinette motioned vaguely over all of Manon, “enough. I don’t want to deal with it from you too.”

Manon tried to stifle the grin that snuck out. “Like you can stop it.”

Marinette watched her, eyes narrowed and lips puckered to hide her smile. “One less cookie for each flippant response.”

Manon gasped and looked back at her with wide eyes. “You wouldn’t!” Marinette smirked at her. Manon turned to Jason with a huff, “You, get your woman she’s acting crazy.”

Jason laughed raucously for the first time in a really, really long time, enjoying the playful but supportive and loving banter. He held up his hands in desertion. “You’re on your own. I wish she was my woman, but I know better than to try to interfere even if she was.”

Manon huffed again as M. Provance came running up to them. “August!” he exclaimed reaching out for him. “August, I was so worried. How are you doing? Did you stay safe?”

“Yeah, Daddy. Marinette’s boyfriend found me and Manon and I stayed with him.” August said quietly.

“Oh thank God,” M. Provance sighed gratefully. After looking over August to make sure he was okay he turned to Marinette and Jason. “Boyfriend?” he raised an eyebrow at her with an amused smile.

Marinette opened her mouth resignedly to respond but Jason cut in first. “Good Day,” he answered with a charming smile. “Jason Todd. Pleasure.”

“Pleasure to meet you. I didn’t even know you were dating, Marinette.” M. Provance looked to Marinette with a kind smile.

“Neither did I,” Marinette muttered under her breath, giving Jason a playfully annoyed look.

Jason eyed her face and deciding she wasn’t actually upset with him, pulled her closer to his side and grinned wider. “Oh, it’s quite new.”

“Well, I wish you both good luck.” M. Provance nodded to them. “But August and I should be getting home. Your mother will be worried sick until she can hold you,” he said to August, holding him closer.

“Oh, since you’re only a few blocks away from my apartment, can you walk me home too?” Manon asked innocently.

“Of course, dear,” M. Provance smiled at her putting a hand behind her shoulder to bring her into their group. “Thank you again, M. Todd and Marinette. Have a good night.”

“Yeah, have a really fun _date_ ,” Manon smirked at them.

They watched the trio retreat before starting to head back to Le Grand Paris Hotel. As soon as they were out of hearing range Jason leaned over to her, still pulled close against his side. “The _morve_ might be mouthy, but she has some good ideas.”

Marinette looked at him in utter confusion. “What the hell is a morve?”

Jason furrowed his brow. “A morve,” he reiterated like that would help her. “You know, an annoying kid. Morve.”

Marinette let out a quiet chuckle. “A _brat_?”

“Ahh… yes. Sorry.” He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

“You should apologize, how dare you call Manon a brat? I’m the only one that gets to call her that. I’ve earned that right after six years of fucking torture at her hands. You don’t get to just waltz in and start claiming the term.” She bumped her awkwardly hip into his thigh. Damn tall people, she grumbled to herself.

“No, I meant…” Jason started apologetically.

She smiled kindly at him. “I know what you meant. Your French is really good. One or two unknown words doesn’t change that. I’m not expecting you to start reading Hugo in the native language.”

“Ooh, that sounds like fun actually.” Jason’s eyes opened wide in excitement at the thought. He instinctually started looking to see if he could find Notre Dame, despite being nowhere near it. “Reading _Hunchback_ in the native language on the steps of Notre Dame? That… I might have to do that. That sounds amazing.”

Marinette raised her eyebrows at him, processing the new information. He was fluent enough to read _Hugo_ in French. He _liked_ reading Hugo. He considered reading Hugo _exciting_. There was so much there to investigate and focus on. Was it bad that she already decided on the name of their first son? Yeah, that might be a bit early for that. She needed to think of something before her mouth started running again and told him. Because that’s what he did to her, made her admit things she knew better than to say out loud. She decided instead to focus on the more prevalent and safer question. “How fluent are you?”

“I’m a bit rusty, but I should get close to fluent after a few days. It was one of the things that got drilled into me during training.”

“Batman drills French into the Robins?” Marinette asked incredulously. 

“No, not Batman…” Jason trailed off, not wanting to discuss his time with the League of Assassins yet. He didn’t want to give her another reason not to trust him so if she asked, he wouldn’t lie. But that didn’t mean he wanted to discuss it either. It wasn’t his favorite part of his history. Not that there were many good parts to choose from. But when trying to convince someone you wanted to help and you weren’t planning on fucking them over, keeping the League out of the discussion was generally the best course of action.

Marinette eyed him curiously. She could sense his apprehension talking about his past. She didn’t know much about it, but she knew it was dark, likely not something he enjoyed discussing. “So you’re a literature nerd or just a Hugo nerd?” She teased him instead, looking over at him playfully as she walked.

Jason chuckled at her, silently thanking her for changing the subject for him. “Both. Hugo, Verne, Austen, Shakespeare. I love all of them.” 

Marinette nodded. Hugo, Jules, and Jeanne, both for Jane Austen and Jeanne d’Arc, the former Ladybug. Two boys’ names and one girl’s name taken care of. She could almost picture the kids running around… “Cover story!” She cried out instead. “Um…” she covered her mouth embarrassed, chastising herself for not only indulging in thinking about their future kids but crying out so loudly and unexpectedly. “I meant,” she continued at a quieter level. “What is your cover story going to be while you’re here, if you stay?”

He looked at her questioningly. He might not know her well, but that was odd. “Well,” he started cautiously, still watching her carefully. “My family’s cover story was vacation, so I guess I’ll continue with that line. Or I can say I’m investigating opening a branch of WE here if you need me to get into any stuffy business offices. The Wayne name opens a lot of doors.”

Marinette nodded. They hadn’t needed that before, but who knows where a future investigation might lead them. But that reminded her of another issue they needed to discuss. “Speaking of names, how close do you think your family is to figuring out mine?”

Jason considered the question. “Close I think. Constantine gave them more clues when you two were talking than they realize yet. Plus, they’ve already started running your picture against National ID’s. I can try to keep them out once they do, but I don’t know how successful I’ll be. Dick will try to listen, but will ultimately do what Bruce tells him to do, like the little fuck boy he is. Tim will fight against Bruce if we give him a reason to, but it’ll have to be a fucking hell of an argument for him to side with _me_ over Bruce and Dick.”

Marinette scoffed at him. “Yeah well, good luck with that search. The magic should have kept the cameras from being able to get identifiable, comparable picture. Even after it was dropped the glamour should have still worked.” She looked over at him with a devilish grin. “They think they’re comparing a picture. They’re not.” She looked up and noticed where they were. “And here we are, Le Gran Paris Hotel.”

Jason smiled down at her, stepping close again, not pulling her into another embrace, but making his interest clear. “You could come up and check out the room.” He offered with a devilish grin. “It has a great view.”

She grinned knowingly at him. “All the penthouse rooms are almost identical, except for Chloe’s. I can't tell you the number of times..." she almost said ‘I accidentally swung into one of these rooms instead of the clubhouse by mistake.’ But he didn't know about the clubhouse and Marinette wasn't sure yet if he ever would "... I've been in one," she finished instead. Not a lie. She'd been in them a lot. Not what she meant to say, but not a lie.

“Oh yeah?” Jason asked waggling his eyebrows. “Do tell.”

“Calm down, Romeo. Nothing as fun as you’re hoping. One of my best friends’ dad owns the hotel. She has a penthouse room and we stay in them sometimes.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Jason responded innocently. “I assumed it was something like that. You know, school trips, spa days, girl’s nights…”

Marinette scoffed. “No you didn’t.” She moved closer to him so their fronts were lightly touching and she had to lean her head almost all the way back in order to look in his eyes. Her devilish smile returning. “Plus, if it’s a good view you’re looking for, maybe I’ll take you to the top of the Eifel Tower sometime.”

“I don’t know, Pixie.” He wound his arms around her waist. “I don’t think anything can beat this one.”

Marinette blushed deeply and buried her head in his chest. “Okay, Casanova,” she finally said after a few minutes enjoying Jason’s arms around her and his nose buried in her hair. “I need to get ready to meet with my team to talk about you. I’ll let you know what they say.”

“Will you argue for me to stay?” He asked her quietly, keeping his arms lightly wrapped around her. If this was going to be one of the last times he was going to get to hold her for a while, he wanted to make it last.

She nodded at him. “I won’t force them to agree, but I’ll make a case for you.”

“Okay,” he whispered pulling her closer for a few moments before letting her go, possibly for the last time.

<><><><><>

Ladybug landed gently on the clubhouse balcony, the only sound announcing her presence the recoiling of her yoyo string. She took a deep breath and steeled herself for the oncoming conversation. This was going to be a hard conversation and they wouldn’t know what the right answer was until Hawkmoth was defeated or they failed spectacularly… in other words, died. She didn’t know how she felt about Jason staying… no, that was a lie. She knew how she felt. She could feel it in her bones. She wanted him to stay. She just didn’t know if it was because she thought he could help or because she would miss seeing his lopsided smile. She took another steadying breath.

Before she could reach for the door, it swung open, just barely missing hitting her in the face. She was met with Nino’s amused smile. “Didn’t want to come through the front door?”

“Didn’t want to take the chance of him seeing me in the hallway,” she answered calling off her transformation. “I don’t want to give him more clues than he already has if we decide we don’t want him to stay.”

“Are you going to be okay if that is the decision?” Nino asked cautiously.

Marinette peeked around him into the room to see who else would hear her answer. It wasn’t like she didn’t know she was going to have to say the same thing to the rest of the group, she just needed to know how prepared to be right now. “Where’s everyone else?” She asked instead of answering.

“Chloe and Adrien aren’t here yet. Alya’s in the bathroom. So you only have a few minutes if there’s something you want to say uninterrupted,” he responded knowingly.

She smiled at him. He was always more observant than people gave him credit for. And always willing to offer a safe place for the people he cared about, whether that be physically safe, mentally safe, emotionally safe, or all three. The perfect turtle. “I’ll be okay with the decision,” she confirmed with a sigh. “I’ll miss him. God, I’ve only spent a total of about three hours with him and I’d miss him so much already.”

“That far gone for him already, huh?” Nino asked with a soft, guilty look in his eyes.

She looked up at him sheepishly, “I decided on names for three of our kids today.” Nino chuckled at her, shaking his head. Yeah, she was that far gone. She gave him a weak smile. “And it isn’t like I wouldn’t be able to see him ever again. There’s always after we take down Hawkmoth, right?”

He gave her a sad smile and pulled her in for a hug, resting his head on hers. “Yeah… right.” He hated it. He hated that she had to keep putting her life on hold for this fight. Both she and Adrien did. He saw the toll it was taking on them, repeatedly giving up parts of themselves. Adrien couldn’t escape his father’s sphere of influence because he couldn’t leave Paris. Every aspect of his life was controlled and dictated as far as his father knew. 

Marinette had already turned down numerous internship offers and university scholarships. Giving up enormous opportunities. They both have had to give up on relationship after relationship before they could even start. Can’t really build a relationship if you have to leave every date with a crap excuse. And now she had finally found someone she felt passionate about, someone who could understand her in a way nobody else had been able to, someone she actually started to consider a future with, something she hadn’t done in years, and she had to walk away from that too. 

And she did have to walk away, not just for them and Paris, but for herself. They couldn’t allow someone like him to stay. He was well trained, violent, ruthless, knew her identity, and someone for whom Marinette already cared deeply. Which meant someone for whom Ladybug cared deeply. Which meant, when he became akumatized, and it was a _when_ not an _if_ , he would be the perfect weapon. He would destroy Ladybug, them, then Paris, and then possibly the world, depending on what the wish was.

“You two going to stay out there all night?” Alya asked, leaning against the doorframe. Her eyebrow was quirked watching them. She knew something important had just happened, just not what. And despite _dying_ from curiosity, she wouldn’t ask. She wasn’t going to push Marinette on this one. She would trust that Nino had helped and she would keep an eye on Marinette to see if she seemed like she needed more.

Marinette looked over at Alya with exaggeratedly wide eyes. “Oh no, she caught us.”

“Oh no, what will we do?” Nino played along.

“Alya, I’m so sorry. We didn’t want you to find out this way.” Marinette pled with her, hand over her heart in regret.

Alya rolled her eyes and gave Marinette a wicked smile. “Well, you are his free pass so…”

Marinette bolted up straight and made a face, quirking her lips to the side with a scrunched up nose. “I don’t think I like this game anymore.”

Nino laughed as Alya came over to him and curled into his side. “Who said it was a game?” She asked innocently.

“Alya!” Marinette groaned, making Nino laugh even harder.

“You started this,” he reminded her. “And also, thank you for that response.”

“Really?” Marinette gave him a deadpan look. “You wouldn’t respond the same way?”

“Of course not. I should only be so lucky.” He smiled smugly at her with a gentlemanly bow, removing his hat to hold it over his heart.

“Oh?” Marinette quirked an eyebrow and looked over to Alya who held her hands up disavowing her involvement in the situation. Marinette started walking slowly over to Nino, swaying her hips ever so slowly. Alya suppressed a smile and slowly backed away from Nino, leaving him to his fate. “So the idea of kissing me, of touching me…” she brought her hand up her stomach ever so slowly, just barely making contact. Nino gulped. “… tongues touching, fingers and hands going…. _everywhere_ ,” she breathed out the last word, just a few inches from his face.

Nino scrunched his face and backed away with a groan. “Yeah, yeah, okay, okay. Fuck, dudette, put away the atomic weaponry. It’s wasted on me anyway. I get what you mean. No offense, but it would be like kissing my sister.” His whole body shuddered in disgust at the thought.

Marinette laughed loudly, leaning on Alya for support, which was a poor choice really considering she was laughing just as hard. They fell onto a patio chair together, still laughing hard. Nino shook his head at them but couldn’t stop himself from laughing too. “You two are terrible.”

“You asked for it, honey. This is your fault,” Alya pointed out, still laughing.

“Are we doing this thing or are you guys planning on screwing around all night long?” Chloe called out. She didn’t even bother looking at them as she plopped into an arm chair and opened a magazine.

“Oh, no. No screwing around. We decided.” Marinette responded with a grin, making eye contact with Nino who scoffed and shook his head again, making Alya laugh again.

“There’s a story there,” Adrien commented, walking to the seating area with a few snacks. “But you’ll have to tell us later. Right now, we have a more important conversation we need to have.”

Marinette, Alya, and Nino’s carefree, bright smiles were replaced with serious expressions, ready to have the heart wrenching conversation they needed to have. Marinette took a deep breath. “Right into it then,” she said in a resigned voice.

“Best way to handle it,” Adrien said sympathetically. She nodded at him to let him know she understood. “Why don’t you tell us what happened.”

Marinette sighed and sat on the arm rest of the arm chair opposite Chloe. Nino, Alya, and Adrien sat on the couch, staring up at her expectantly. “There isn’t much more to tell than you know already. He came into the bakery, waited until everyone was gone and came up to talk to me. He didn’t know I was Ladybug when he came in. He came to find me. _Me_ , me. He said he’s alone. The rest of the family doesn’t know my name let alone who I am. _He_ doesn’t know who you all are. He didn’t tell his family some of the things I said while we were dancing so they don’t have as many clues on where to look as he did and he got help from someone who isn’t going to help the rest of the family.”

“Constantine?” Adrien asked darkly.

She shook her head, “No, someone who saw me change dresses. As far as I know, Constantine is still avoiding the bats.”

“So, if he didn’t know your identity until he was talking to you, just how exactly did he figure out your identity while you were together?” Alya waggled her eyebrows at her.

Marinette rolled her eyes at Alya while Adrien and Nino giggled at the suggestion and Chloe gave an annoyed huff. “Apparently, insults aren’t covered by the magic glamour.”

“I think you mean flirting,” Adrien responded automatically before thinking about what she said and paled slightly. That was concerning news. Insults and nicknames were his thing. Insults for akumas, nicknames for his friends. It’s what he did. If that was all it took to expose their identities…. there were likely A LOT of Parisians who actually knew his identity. “Wait, really?”

“That’s ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. If that were true, everyone in Paris would know Chat’s identity,” Chloe scoffed. Alya and Nino cocked their heads to the side in unison and nodded. She wasn’t wrong.

Tikki spoke up timidly from her spot on the coffee table. “It isn’t the insults that aren’t covered.”

Marinette’s eyes widened as she thought about what Tikki was saying. “Oh God, you aren’t going to say it has something to do with soulmates or something, are you?” she asked apprehensively.

“Why the Hell would you be afraid of that?” Chloe questioned her incredulously. Seriously? Only fucking Marinette would think that was a problem.

Tikki floated up to the center of the room, rolling her whole body instead of her eyes. “No, that doesn’t exist. People are capable of being a whole person all on their own. They don’t need someone else to complete them. Just because someone can fit with you perfectly, that doesn’t mean they were designed to or always will.”

“No, she means he’s spent time in the Lazarus pits,” Plagg explained, extremely unhelpfully as he shoved a piece of cheese easily as big as him into his mouth. 

Trixx squealed and flew over to him. “No way! Seriously? That is amazing.”

Wayzz looked between Plagg and Tikki with concern. “Are you sure?”

Tikki nodded at him solemnly, “I could feel it on him.”

The humans in the room looked from one to the other to see if anyone knew what that meant, but there were no signs of recognition, only confusion. Nobody knew exactly what the Lazarus pit meant but judging by the kwamis’ somber responses, except for Trixx, who liked chaos, even more than Plagg at times, it wasn’t good.

Finally Alya was the one to ask the question on all their minds, “What is the Lazarus pit?”

Tikki sighed and looked down guiltily. “The Lazarus Pits were a result of a wish a couple hundred years ago. A villain got the Ladybug earrings and Black Cat ring and wished for eternal life. The pits were the result. They can bring good physical health to anyone who bathes in it.”

Marinette stared at Tikki absentmindedly. Someone had made a wish. Someone had gotten their hands on both miraculous and made a wish. It had happened. The monks had lost at some point. That… made her feel better? A little bit. The monks had failed. Even with all their experience and knowledge, _they_ had failed. She hadn’t failed that badly… yet. So she was doing a good job, a better job than the experts on it. 

Oh, no. That was bad. If the _experts_ had failed, what chance did she have? They had hundreds of years of experience and knowledge. _They_ could actually read the texts and _had_ texts to use. She started breathing more rapidly running the words Tikki had said through her mind again… and again… and again… Wait… “ _Physical_ health?” She looked up at Tikki questioningly.

Plagg cackled next to her, doing excited summersaults in the air. “Good catch, Pigtails.” He grinned maliciously. “Physical _only_. Everything else deteriorates more rapidly. Once can drive someone insane and _repeated_ dips… you’ll _wish_ for death.”

Marinette looked at Plagg horrified. “Jason…” she whispered out like a breath. If the Lazarus pits traumatized someone so badly mentally whenever someone used them, how badly had Jason suffered? Was he still suffering? How badly had he suffered _physically_ to use them in the first place?

“Yeah, yeah, that’s completely terrifying and all but what does that have to do with the miraculous glamour?” Chloe asked sharply, trying to hide her concerned look at Marinette.

“Another side effect,” Plagg grinned maniacally. “People who’ve been dipped aren’t as susceptible to the miraculous magic. So if they’ve ever been dipped, or even spent a long time around them, they can never wield one. The more exposure, the worse the effects. You have to be human to wield the miraculous and every dip strips a bit of humanity away.”

Nino nodded along as he spoke, “So they can use the results of the wish, but if they do, they do so at the expense of ever being able to use it again.”

“Exactly,” Plagg grinned.

“So what you’re saying is Jason was exposed and because of that, even if we let him stay, he wouldn’t be able to help us or protect himself with a miraculous?” Adrien summed up with a sigh.

Tikki shot a furtive look to Marinette to check on her, “He wouldn’t be able to wield one to fight alongside you or protect himself.”

Marinette looked over at Tikki curiously. “That means he wouldn’t be as susceptible to becoming akumatized, doesn’t it?” She could feel everyone’s eyes on her as she spoke.

“That’s what I’m hearing,” Chloe threw in a little too casually to be as uninterested as she acted.

“If the miraculous magic isn’t as effective against him, then Hawkmoth’s draw won’t be as powerful. It should be easier for him to resist. It would also mean if there was another illusion based akuma, he should be able to tell there was something off about it, right?” She looked over to Plagg.

Plagg puckered his lips considering what she had said. “That sounds right.”

“That _is_ right!” Tikki exclaimed happily doing a few flips in the air before sobering and stilling in the air. “He can resist Hawkmoth more easily than others, but not be able to defend himself.”

“But it isn’t definite, right?” Alya interjected. “It makes it easier but…” she took a deep breath and looked at Marinette sympathetically. “But this is a bat, and a violent one at that. This is a man who likes to push his way through people and situations with little to no regard for the consequences. This is someone that voluntarily jumped into the pit to heal himself, knowing the price. Are we really so sure he _would_ resist?”

“You don’t know how he ended up in the pit!” Marinette exclaimed quickly. “We don’t know how it happened or why. And you don’t know that he doesn’t consider the consequences of his actions.” The picture Alya was painting absolutely contrasted with the image of Jason Marinette had constructed. Every interaction she had with him, every word, every inflection, every move, every reflex, every roll of his eyes, every twitch, every smile, every promise, showed Marinette that he could and would resist the allure of easy power and easy solutions, even if it hurt him to do it. The information about the Lazarus pit did concern her, but she refused to condemn him until she heard from him. He deserved a chance to explain. 

“From all the research you sent me, it sounds like he is very efficient and a strategic planner. Just because you don’t like his actions, doesn’t mean he hasn’t thought them through.” Chloe added apathetically, pretending to focus on her magazine again.

“Yeah, Chloe, we know how you feel about this,” Alya snapped at her.

“And we know how you feel about it. Before we even started discussing it, you decided. So how about we have a real conversation about this,” Chloe snapped back, slapping her magazine closed. “Or actually let’s skip the conversation and the gut wrenching possibilities that either decision is wrong and just agree to let him stay.”

“Chloe, we’re going to discuss this even if you’ve decided,” Nino sighed.

“Why? Tikki already given her consent. Plagg will do whatever she tells him to do.” 

“Hey!” Plagg interjected but was ignored as Chloe continued. “Trixx is going to be excited about the potential havoc. And Wayzz will recommend caution, but not say no. So all the kwami's are on board.

“I say yes. Marinette will say yes because she knows deep down she wants him to stay because it feels right. Adrien will say yes because she said yes. Then it's just down to you two. And we both know Alya is not going to say no because despite how worried she is, that boy put a ton of effort into finding Marinette and Marinette likes him. And you're not going to say no because everyone else says yes and you know how much Marinette has sacrificed already and you are not about to ask her to sacrifice more. So why are we even talking this?”

“I _am_ worried about this!” Alya stood up annoyed. She was not going to let Chloe steamroll them with reason and logic. Alya had reason and logic too, damn it. “And with good reason. We can’t trust him!” she cried loudly. “We have no reason to. All we have to go on is what the bats and Justice League have done in the past, how they’ve handled situations they decided to ‘help’ with. And their track record is shitty. Absolutely, without question Godawful. If we let the Bat family into Paris…” Alya cautioned them.

“Those akumas came meditation room fast,” Nino reminded them. “Less than a few minutes in costume and the akumas were already on their way.”

“We aren’t talking about the Bat family,” Marinette cut in. “Just Jason. Right now, we’re only discussing Jason. I don’t trust the rest of the Bats yet and I don’t know that I would _ever_ really trust Batman completely. Which is another point for Jason. He doesn’t trust him either. We can’t hold the actions of the Justice League against Jason. And we can’t hold the akumas against him either. There were four bats there and the three others looked a lot more emotional than Jason.”

“I don’t know what scene you were watching,” Nino commented calmly. “Jason looked pretty emotionally invested.”

“Yeah,” Chloe scoffed, “invested in finding his fuck buddy.”

“I am not… we have not… just… shut up unless you’re going to say something helpful.” Marinette stuttered out.

“That was helpful.” Chloe rolled her eyes. “Unlike the other bats, he wasn’t angry, he was emotional because he was worried about finding Marinette… so he could fuck her.”

Marinette’s already red face turned burgundy. She opened her mouth a few times to respond, but just collapsed back in the arm chair with her head in her hands. “Thank you,” she mumbled out through her hands.

“You’re welcome,” Chloe responded smugly, settling back into her seat.

Alya was getting annoyed with the direction the conversation was going. Every time she made a point, Chloe would sidetrack them. “Back to the fucking point,” Alya growled out, “if he got akumatized he’d be a perfect weapon.” She started ticking off her points on her fingers. “He’s incredibly well trained, better than all of us combined, better than any of the bats.” One finger up. “He’s familiar with magic and how to push it.” Another finger up. “He has training and experience with creating battle strategies based on using magic.” Third finger up. “He’s strong, probably the strongest bat.” Another finger up. She hesitated staring at her thumb. There were so very many reasons, why couldn’t she think of it now?

“He knows who Ladybug is,” Nino supplied for her. Alya looked around smugly and put out her thumb as well. “He knows who Ladybug is and how to hit her so it hurts. He can hit Marinette where it hurts the worst, cause permanent damage,” he looked at Marinette sympathetically as he said it. The most pressing reasons for him not to stay were because of her and they all knew it.

They stared at each other for a few moments, nobody sure what to say before Marinette finally spoke up. “You said Jason was great at strategy so he would be too powerful as an akuma, but a few minutes ago you said he would become an akuma because he rushes into things without thinking. So which one is it?” Alya stared at her uncertain. 

“Because him knowing my identity is only a problem if you assume he will become an akuma. You all know my identity and it hasn’t been a problem. In fact deciding to reveal ourselves to each other has only strengthened us. And he,” she vaguely motioned toward the other side of the hotel where Jason’s room was, “has more tools to repel it than we do. And all the reasons why he would be too dangerous to _us_ are also reasons why he would be dangerous for Hawkmoth. Plus adding in his detective experience. We need a detective. Even if he doesn’t fight with us, he can investigate while we fight and go to school. None of us have had the chance to focus on this full time and he can and he has the experience to know how to do it properly.”

“All of that is what is called an asset, but he’s exceptionally risky which makes him a volatile asset, but an asset none the less. You have a higher probability for significantly greater gains with a volatile asset than a regular asset.” Chloe added. “It’s more likely to skyrocket.”

“Or plummet,” Adrien pointed out. “The point of a volatile asset is that it is just as likely to go up as down and there is no way to predict.”

Chloe’s eyes sparkled like he fell into a trap. “Unless you have luck on your side.”

Adrien nodded in deferment. “What does your gut say about Jason, Marinette?” Adrien turned to her with searching eyes.

Marinette considered the question. What did her gut say? Ignoring all the pressures and desires, what did her instincts say? Separating desire from instinct… so the question isn’t ‘does she want him to stay,’ the questions are ‘does she trust him,’ ‘does she think he wants to help,’ ‘does she think he _can_ help,’ ‘does she think they will be able to use his help,’ and ‘does she think he will make the situation in Paris better.’ And the answer to all of those questions is the exact same one word answer. “My gut says let him stay. My instincts say he will help us finish this.”

“Then I say he stays.” Adrien shrugged.

“Just like that?” Alya looked at him exasperatedly.

“Just like that.” Adrien nodded. “I trust Marinette’s instincts. I always have and they have never steered me or any of us wrong.” He looked over and noted Nino and Alya’s expressions. “It means something,” he continued, passion filling his voice. “It means something that she met him at the gala. Of all the people she could have met, she met him, she met not only a bat, but _that_ bat. The one bat, I assume, that has some kind of immunity to the miraculous magic.”

“Coincidence, dude. That is all coincidence and Constantine. You said Constantine admitted to planning all of this.” Nino sighed out annoyed. “I means Constantine is a good manipulator.”

“No,” Adrien answered back quickly. “I mean, yes, he is. But, no that isn’t what it means. Constantine set up the scenario, but there was no way to know she would catch a Wayne’s attention, let alone _Jason’s_. It was what he hoped for, but he was relying _heavily_ on Ladybug’s luck for things to turn out the way they were meant to. And just think about it,” he leaped up to pace in front of them with a new realization. “Think about the lucky charm!”

“Trackers,” Alya supplied confused.

“No!” Adrien grinned like he just solved a puzzle and everything was suddenly clear. “The lucky charm was _Red Hood_. Tikki could have given us trackers herself but she didn’t. She sent Marinette to Jason to get the trackers. I don’t think that was just for that battle. I think it was for the war.”

“Dude!” Nino said in awe. “That’s really good.”

“We need a vote from everyone. Yes or no on whether we let him stay. If we decide he can stay then we need to agree on how much to tell him.” Marinette said carefully. “I vote yes.”

“I vote yes,” Adrien smiled at her popping a grape into his mouth and settling into the couch. “Chlo?”

Chloe looked up from her magazine with an annoyed expression. “I thought the right answer was pretty clear.”

“It isn’t that easy Chloe.” Alya’s voice was strained.

“Isn’t it? I’m sorry let me make it that easy. I say we let the hot boy she wants to bang stay.” She looked at their shocked faces, all except for Marinette whose face was bright red and mouth was gaping. “Oh, I’m sorry. Is it even more complicated than that? Let the _rich_ , hot boy she wants to bang stay.” She paused and looked between them again. “No? Even more complicated? Let the rich, hot, _hero_ boy she wants to bang stay.” She looked at them again waiting for someone to say something. “Seriously? Fine. Let the rich, hot, hero boy she wants to bang _and_ who wants to bang her stay.”

Nino looked at her with a bit of confusion and concern. “Are you feeling okay, Chloe?”

“It’s not like she’s ever going to find anyone else like that again.” She sniped, turning back to the magazine.

“Ah, there she is,” Nino said nodding as he looked away with a sigh.

Alya looked between the two of them and let out a weighty sigh. “Fine. I say yes too. I trust your instincts too. You are Lady Luck for a reason. We can use a little bit of a shakeup. Hopefully, this is the right kind.” She sat down and leaned against Nino, praying they were making the right decision. She looked back up at Marinette with a foxy glint in her eyes. “And if he helps you _get_ lucky as well…”

Marinette groaned and threw the arm chair pillow at Alya’s head. Despite the pillow actually hitting its mark, Alya started laughing raucously, followed quickly by everyone else, including Marinette.

“That just leaves you, Nino. No pressure, you’re allowed to say no.” Marinette assured him.

“I say yes, too.” He nodded at her with a smile. “How else are you going to use those kids names you came up with?” Nino grinned cheekily. He knew exactly what kind of a havoc he was wreaking and couldn’t wait to sit back and watch it happen.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you can believe it, I wrote the don't be like Americans line before the whole storming the Capitol thing happened.
> 
> Brat in French is morveuse or morveu (according to Google Translate). Jason just missed the ‘u’ or the ‘use’ at the end.
> 
> The English ‘Jane’ and ‘Joan’ both translate in French as Jeanne.


	10. Who Do You Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette and Jason discuss the Lazarus Pit. Later Jason meets the team and the kwami.

Marinette shuffled her feet in the hallway. She smoothed her hair again, as if it could have somehow gotten messy since the last time she checked it, less than a minute before during which time she hadn’t moved from the spot she was in. Content that her hair wouldn’t embarrass her, at least not more than normal, she smoothed over her outfit to make sure everything was in place despite the fact that Jason had seen it earlier in the day getting whipped around in the akuma induced wind. 

Finally she reasoned that she couldn’t put it off anymore. She took a deep breath to steel herself. For what, she wasn’t sure. It made no sense to be nervous and she knew that. It didn’t relieve the anxiety though. She was giving him the news he wanted to hear, the news he had asked to hear. So why was she nervous?

She stared at her fist, poised to knock on the door but frozen inches away. She slowly lowered her hand, the confused look staying on her face. He was going to get to stay. He was going to be near her, but what if that wasn’t what he really wanted? What if he changed his mind once he actually spent time with her?

She stared at the space her hand had been. Was that why she was nervous? No, her anxiety wasn’t about her love life, not this time. This was something else. This was about something more. Telling him made it all real. Everything would change and she had argued the change would be for the better. She couldn’t afford to be wrong about it and it wasn’t up to her. It all depended on Jason and really, she didn’t know him. She had bet the world’s future on someone she didn’t know. 

On top of that, for him to really work with the rest of the team, they needed to know what happened with the Lazarus Pit. And as soon as she knocked, she was going to have to start that conversation. She was going to have to dredge up painful memories and she loathed the idea of doing that. The idea physically pained her.

She took a few deep breaths and looked back up at the door with a newfound resolve. She was Ladybug for fuck’s sake. She could handle a difficult conversation about emotionally excruciating events. That was a significant part of her job after all. People didn’t become akumas because of fun, happy experiences. And she didn’t know everything about Jason, but she _knew_ him. She knew he would help. She _knew_ he was the right choice. She looked back at the door and knocked loudly. She silently congratulated herself for her small but significant victory. She could do this. She was Ladybug. She could do this.

Jason opened the door after a minute with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting you so soon.” He opened the door to let her through, but she was frozen in her spot. Her mouth dropped open. He had clearly just gotten back from working out. His arms were on full display in his sleeveless shirt and his loose, grey sweatpants clung to his muscular thighs. His arm muscles looked even more pronounced with the light catching the sheen of sweat covering them. And God, his arms were bigger than her head. She stared at them in wonder. She couldn’t do this. Who the fuck did she think she was thinking she could do this?

Jason grinned smugly at her reaction. He leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest, making sure to put his fists under his biceps to make them appear larger. His muscles definitely didn’t need any help to look enormous, but he wanted to impress her and see just how distracted he could make her. “Like what you see?”

“Yes.” The answer came out before she even thought about the question. Her eyes snapped up to his, her cheeks blazing red. His smug smile grew into a deep laugh. She narrowed her eyes at him noticing the smug smile. “Come on lover boy. The rest of the team is waiting to talk with you and the _supermodel_ has a photoshoot in the morning so he's in a rush to get home and sleep.”

“Supermodel?” Jason’s smile faltered, suddenly less secure in his approach to distract her.

“Yep,” she said with a smirk popping the p. “Told you it takes more than a pretty face.”

“Good thing I have this body too.” He grinned again, motioning to himself.

She puckered her lips. “Did I mention the shoot is for a fragrance, so it will be shirtless? That’s one of the reasons they chose him.” He didn’t need to know it was _mostly_ because it was for his dad. But even if it wasn’t, Adrien’s body was amazing. That said… Jason’s body was perfect. Looking at it made her feel like she was going to burst into flames. Looking at his body and that devilish smile and those captivating eyes, she didn’t think he would even need to touch her to make her orgasm. And if he kept flexing his muscles like that, that’s exactly what might happen.

“So,” he leaned a bit closer to her so he was in her personal space, bringing her eyes back to his, “what does it take, exactly?”

She pushed him away with a finger on his chest in one of the few dry patches on his shirt. “Well first of all, someone who doesn't waste my time. Hurry up, Hagrid. They’re waiting and I want to talk a bit before we go.” She looked him up and down again. “But, I’m not doing that while you’re sweaty.”

He chuckled and moved to let her in again. She took him up on his offer this time, giving him a wide berth to both keep away from the sweat and keep herself from reaching out to run her hands along his chest as she passed. “I just need to take a quick shower and I’ll be ready.” He turned to her and gave her devious smirk. “You’re welcome to join me if you want.”

She quirked her lips to the side and narrowed her eyes at him as though analyzing him. “I get the feeling you wouldn't know what to do if I actually said yes.”

He raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise before grinning seductively at her. “I wouldn't believe my luck, but I have all kinds of ideas about what we can do. Been thinking about them since we met.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.

Marinette blushed deeply and looked away. “Just… Just hurry up André the Giant. They don't like to be kept waiting.” 

Jason chuckled and started walking out of the room with a small mock bow. “As you wish.”

“And if I got my hands on you we would definitely be late,” she said loudly enough for him to hear her. She smirked proudly when Jason tripped on nothing, almost falling into the doorframe to the next room.

“You're going to make me take longer in the shower of you keep that up.” He shook his finger at her and kept walking before she could reply. 

As soon as Jason left the room Marinette pulled out her phone and texted Alya. ‘His body should be illegal. I can’t breathe anymore. Thinking about just one of his muscles is going to give me an aneurism.’ 

Marinette’s phone pinged almost immediately with Alya’s response. ‘WTF happened?’

‘He answered the door sweaty and in workout clothes, showing off for me. I think I died. Did you see ladybugs flying around, because I’m pretty sure I died and came back.’

‘I’m not sure you’re the best judge. I think I need to see for myself.’ Marinette could just see the smirk on Alya’s face.

Marinette narrowed her eyes at the phone. ‘No! Back off. Mine. I will cut you. But he’s going to take a shower so expect a delay.’ 

‘Without you? Rude’

Marinette snorted and tucked her phone back in her pocket. She walked over to the balcony doors and looked out over her city, trying _very_ hard not to think about the water she could hear running. Just a few feet away, okay more than just ‘a few’, but still not many, he was naked and washing himself… Nope! She shook her head. Not going to think about that right now. She needed to distract herself.

She looked around the room to see if there was anything she could use to preoccupy herself for the next few minutes. She gave the room a sweep. Nope. Nothing. Bastard is going to just let her sit out there with nothing to do but imagine his naked body. She groaned and fell back over the armrest of the couch, hair splaying out over the cushions and legs kicking idly over the armrest. 

Why couldn’t an akuma strike now? But nooooo. They never happen when it would be helpful. They are also bastards. Well, not them. It wasn’t their faults. Hawkmoth and Argus were the bastards. And she was the bastard because she couldn’t stop them. And Constantine was the bastard because… so many reasons, but primarily right now, because he’s the one to put her in this situation in the first place.

She sighed and threw her arm over her eyes. God, she didn’t want to ask him about the Lazarus Pit just as much as she did. Was there any chance describing it wouldn’t be traumatic for him? Maybe he would just laugh it off like a joke. “Hey funny story, my brothers and I were just messing around and I ended up falling into the Pit accidentally. We didn’t even know what it was.” Then he would run his fingers along her jaw and run his other hand along her side until he got to her hip and pull her closer to him. Then he would kiss her deeply, running his hand through her hair and his other hand would go lower to…

“I see you’ve made yourself at home.” His voice was smooth and amused.

Her eyes shot open and scrambled to stand up. “Sorry, sorry, sorry.” He chuckled at her giving her a heart stuttering smile. He cocked his hip to the side, resting one hand in the pocket of his pants and running the other through his still wet hair. 

“Holy shit,” Marinette mumbled absentmindedly, which was the only way she would be able to do anything right now. Jason had come out in nothing but a pair of pants that were tight around his thighs and she assumed his ass as well, because his thighs were too muscular for regular, off the rack pants. She’d have to make him some, she thought distantly. Though it would be a shame to not see this sight. The lack of shirt and shoes added a sense of casualness and domesticity to his sexiness that Marinette couldn’t handle.

His broad, chiseled chest was on full display and she couldn’t look away from it. She had known his chest was muscular, the curves of his muscles could be seen even through his clothes, but seeing his bare chest was short circuiting her brain. Drops of water from his wet hair were trailing paths down his chest. Her eyes tracked one of the drops of water. She was distantly aware of a chuckling noise but her face scrunched up with concern. 

The drop’s smooth path was getting continually disrupted by scars. There were so many. Deep ones, shallow ones, small, large, barely noticeable, wide and rough. She reached out to touch one of them but stopped herself just short of touching him when she realized what she was doing. She slowly pulled her hand back and looked up at Jason with concern clear in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said simply. 

She let the intention hang in the air ambiguously. Because she was sorry for so much. She was sorry for acting so casually in his room. She was sorry for almost touching him so intimately without his permission. She was sorry for the suffering the scars indicated. She was sorry that she was going to have to ask him to talk about incidents that may have been what caused the scars.

Jason shrugged with a practiced nonchalance. “No problem. I’m hard to keep your hands off, I know.” He tried with a smirk, avoiding her eyes.

“Still inappropriate for me to touch you without your permission,” she pointed out sheepishly.

He gave her a roguish smile and moved closer to her. “Oh, you have permission to touch me whenever you want.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she answered breathlessly. She couldn’t look away from the roguish glint in his eyes. 

He stepped closer again until his chest was almost touching hers. “Please do. And I fully encourage you to make yourself at home here. Please feel free to get as comfortable as possible. Maybe start by losing some of your more restrictive clothing.” 

“Is that why you didn’t bother with a shirt?” She looked up at him from under her lashes, not trusting herself to be able to hold her head up straight.

“I hate feeling restricted.” He nodded slightly, his voice turning seductive.

She gasped quietly when he brought his hands up to cup her face gently. “You’re making it really difficult to stay focused and be responsible.”

“So be irresponsible with me.” His voice was enticing and his eyes entrancing, a triton luring her into his lair and she so very much wanted to let him.

She shook her head apologetically. “I can’t.”

“You’re fighting a villain without help…”

“I have a team.”

“You went in without training.”

“I learn fast.”

“You’re the leader of your team.”

“We work together as a team.”

“You don’t let yourself feel.”

“I feel things.”

“You feel responsible for everything that is happening even though it isn’t your fault.”

“It is my fault we haven’t ended it yet.” She shook her head, tears starting to form. Everything he was pointing out were things she couldn’t let herself focus on. Because if she focused on them, she would never be able to keep going.

“You deserve a break. You deserve to do something crazy. You deserve to be irresponsible,” he said gently. “You deserve to be happy.”

He ran his thumbs over her cheeks and gazed adoringly in her eyes. Marinette leaned into his touch. “You have no idea how much you make me want that.” She gently placed her hands over his and closed her eyes. His strong hands made her feel warm and safe, but she couldn’t return the favor. “But we need to talk. And I don’t want to do it with an audience.” She winced internally at how that sounded.

He sighed and let his hands drop, taking a step away, also well aware that sentence never leads to anything good. “Okay.”

“Unfortunately, you should probably put a shirt on while we talk,” she sighed and looked at the ground.

He smiled cheekily at her. “Do I distract you?”

She looked back up at him and puckered her lips attempting to keep the corners of her lips from quirking up. “Yes,” she mumbled and looked away. 

“Good.” He grinned and stepped closer again. “Because you make it impossible for me to focus on anything but you.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. She couldn’t let him distract her. They needed to have this talk and she didn’t want to make him have to do it in front of a group. After a few deep breaths she looked back at him with a serious look. “It's about the Lazarus Pit.”

His face turned in an instant from teasing to unsure and a bit panicked. “How do you know about that?”

She gave him a weak smile. “That’s one of the things we can talk about.”

He looked away with a pained sigh. “Yeah, okay. I’ll go finish getting dressed.” He turned back to her with a strained smile. He really didn’t want this conversation to go as dark as it probably was going to go. He wanted to get back to the flirty banter, even though he knew it was probably impossible. “If you’re sure you want me to.”

She gave him a half smile and looked away with a quiet laugh. “Not really. It seems like a crime to cover your body, but it’s probably a good idea if I’m going to form coherent sentences.” 

He nodded and turned to get dressed. She was still flirting with him. Still giving him compliments. That had to mean she wasn’t disgusted by his past with the Lazarus Pit. Maybe there was hope then. Maybe she could know the worst parts of him and still stay? That seemed like too much to ask for. He would just have to enjoy as much as he could, as long as he could. Until she learned too much about him and changed her mind.

After a few moments, Jason walked back into the room with a serious expression, trying to be prepared for the conversation. “Well that’s not fucking better.” Marinette threw her hands up in the air and turned away. Jason was fully dressed but that consisted of combat boots, the same tight pants from earlier, and a skintight shirt that clung to his muscles. She could see the outline of every muscle through his shirt and trace the movement as they flexed. “How am I supposed to have a serious conversation with you looking like that?”

Jason blushed lightly chuckled, grateful to her for relieving some of the tension. “The same way I do when you are anywhere near me.”

“It’s not the same,” she grumbled into her hands. “I’m not always in skintight clothes.”

“You don’t have to be to knock me on my ass,” he answered earnestly. Marinette looked up at him with wide eyes, a blush taking over her cheeks. 

Jason grinned proudly. God it made him feel so amazing to know he could make her blush so easily. All he had to do was say a few honest words and she would blush for him. _He_ could do that. But they had to be _honest_ words. She wouldn’t respond if they weren’t. She demanded honesty. So he was going to have to give it to her. He cleared his throat and sat awkwardly on the edge of one of the arm chair’s cushion. “So… you wanted to talk about the Lazarus Pit?”

He had clasped his hands between his knees and hunched over like he was waiting for a scolding. The sight broke Marinette’s heart. She rubbed her suddenly sweaty palms on her pants and sat on the coffee table across from him. Their knees were almost touching. If Marinette were taller, they would be. It was the closest she could sit to him without actually sitting on him. She wanted to be close for this conversation. She _needed_ him to know she was there for him. She wasn’t going to turn her back on him without hearing him out.

“We know what the Lazarus Pit is and we know you were in it. What we don’t know is why. What happened that you ended up in it?” She took a breath and gave the top of his head, the only part he was showing, a determined look. “What we don’t know is what it cost you.”

Jason let out a long, deep breath and ran his hands over his face a few times. “Yeah, okay. That’s fair I guess,” he mumbled into his hands. Was it really fair? He didn’t know. He didn’t know if they deserved to know his deepest, darkest secrets in order for him to stay. He knew he shouldn’t _have_ to expose the rawest part of himself to stay, but he understood why they wanted it. And if they knew about the Lazarus Pit, then he understood why they were worried.

What he didn’t understand was why Marinette was sitting so close to him, making herself so vulnerable. If they really did know about the effect the Lazarus Pit had, then she should know better. She should know how dangerous it was to be so close. Yet there she was, sitting inches away, looking at him with openness and compassion. She was the strangest person who had ever entered his life and God, he hoped she never left it.

“You want the Cliff Notes version or the Mahabharata version?” His voice was tired.

She cocked her head to the side. “I don’t really know what either of those things mean, but I want to know as much as you’re comfortable telling me.”

Jason huffed out a laugh and leaned forward, concentrating on the floor as he composed his thoughts. How much was he comfortable with telling? He was still deep in thought when Marinette spoke up again. Her voice gentle and non-accusatory. “I know it must be really difficult and I don’t want to… I _hate_ that I have to ask you to talk about it, to go through it again. But, the rest of the team knows too and they’re scared. If it’s too much for you, we don’t have to know. You can stay and we won’t push you. It isn’t a requirement to stay. But they’re going to be worried and I don’t know if they’ll be able to trust you. They…” she paused considering whether or not to tell him what Alya had said. There was no way he could take it positively, and he shouldn’t, but she wanted him to know what he would be up against, why she was asking. “They think you chose to go into the pit and they want to know why someone would make that choice knowing the price.”

“Choose?” He looked at her questioningly. She couldn’t possibly have meant that. “Choose!” he repeated incredulously. He leaned back in the chair and ran his hands through his hair. “I didn’t choose anything. I didn’t choose to die at that fucking clown’s hands. I didn’t choose to get brought back at the hands of that fucking holier than thou Super. I didn’t choose to get taken in by the League of fucking Assassins. And I certainly didn’t choose to get thrown into that damned Pit by that fucking bitch.” He started breathing heavily running through everything that happened.

“You wanted to know what it cost me.” He looked back at her with a feral look in his eyes. “It cost me my sanity. It cost me my serenity. It cost me my sense of justice and balance. It cost me my family. It cost me my future.” He scoffed at himself. “Not that I really ever had any of those things in the first place. Never had them and never going to have them.”

Jason looked up to face her, frustration and betrayal clear in his eyes. The Pit took so much from him and this should be one of those things. She shouldn’t let him stay. She shouldn’t trust him. “Why would you trust me? If you know about the Pits, why let me stay?” He cried.

She frowned at him. “You think I shouldn’t?”

“FUCK NO!” he yelled louder than he meant to and standing up to pace the floor. “I’m the last fucking person you should trust. And you already said you didn’t. You just said you thought I chose to jump into that fucking, godforsaken hell water.”

“That’s not what I said.” Her voice was calm and low, but demanded just as much attention as his screams had. “I said they were worried about that. They don’t know you. They haven’t met you so they’re scared. They know you have the potential to hurt us, to hurt me, and they don’t know you well enough to know you would never. I do. I trust you.”

He threw his hands up in the air and collapsed back into the seat. Why wasn’t she understanding this? As much as he hated the way his family treated him, he understood it. He deserved it. This though, he didn’t deserve. It was everything he had asked her for; a chance, their trust, her attention. But he didn’t deserve it. “Terrible decision,” he grumbled at her. “They could be right.”

She chuckled at his reaction and gave him a soft smile. “I trust you and I’m a pretty good judge of character.”

He scoffed at her. “You trust Constantine.”

“Eh. Yes and no. I trust Constantine to be Constantine.” She shrugged at him and leaned back, supporting herself with her hands behind her. “We needed someone with magical knowledge and questionable morals so he was the best fit. We sure as fuck weren’t going to go to Doctor Fate or Zatara, for opposite reasons.” She sighed and looked out through the windows, watching the city’s lights twinkle in the distance. “Look, I wouldn’t trust him to watch my dog, if I had one. But I’d trust him to watch my back until the cost got too high. I’d trust him to know when that was. And honestly, he’s the only one I trust with that. The _only_ one.” She turned back to Jason with a quizzical look. “Do you think that’s what the Pit did to you? Made you untrustworthy?”

He shook his head and looked her in the eye. She needed to know who he was. “I was untrustworthy long before that.”

She leaned forward, matching his gaze with a fierce one of her own. “I don’t believe that.”

“Pixie…” he sighed, closing his eyes and leaning his head back.

“No,” she cut him off before he could say something else self-deprecating. He opened his eyes to see what she was going to say next. “Just because you weren’t trusted, that doesn’t mean you weren’t trustworthy.”

“You don’t know what I’ve done.” The look he gave her was heartbreaking and she wouldn’t let him get away with thinking that about himself.

“You don’t know what _I’ve_ done.” She inched forward in her spot, her face closer to his so he couldn’t look away. “I trust you. You crossed an ocean to help us. You went against your family to come here. You saved Manon and August when you could have kept walking. You left on the rooftop when I asked you to even though you didn’t know it was me asking. You stopped at the gala to help a little girl because she looked sad. Because that’s who you are. And I trust you to be honest with me. I trust you to help Paris. I trust you to try. I trust you to protect us. I trust you to sit out as long as you can stand it. I trust you to fight until your last breath when you can’t stand it anymore. I trust you to do what you think is right. I trust you to trust me. And I trust you to argue when you disagree with me. _I trust you._ ”

The room went silent except for Marinette’s deep breathing echoing through the room. Jason watched her for a few moments letting her words bounce around in his head. He finally lunged forward to pull her into a tight hug and settle her in his lap. Marinette froze momentarily before she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. She gripped him tightly as though she were afraid to let him go, afraid he wouldn’t understand how she felt. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten worked up. I can’t do that here and I promised you I wouldn’t.”

Marinette shook her head rapidly. “No! I asked you about something extremely painful. I knew it would be horrible for you and I asked anyway. You had every right.”

“I didn’t. I’m sorry,” he sighed out. That was one of the conditions for him staying, not just for them but for himself and for Selina. He had _promised_ himself and her that he would stay calm and the _first day_ he blew it. He needed to do better and he knew that. He couldn’t afford to lose it like that. No matter what anyone says, no matter what anyone asks about, he couldn’t get angry. 

He sighed at himself and took a calming breath before turning his attention back to Marinette. He hooked his finger under her chin to get her to look up at him. When she made eye contact with him, he softened his gaze. “You had every right to ask. I can talk about it calmly. I’m fine,” he tried to assure her with a weak smile.

Marinette looked at him with understanding and nodded at him. “I can pretend that’s true if you want me to,” she offered quietly.

He furrowed his brow at her, poised to reassure her it really was fine. That was his standard response, but for some reason it didn’t feel right. It felt wrong to lie like that with her. He didn’t want to lie. He cupped her face and pulled it closer to his. He rested his forehead on hers and shook his head lightly. “I don’t want you to pretend with me.”

She looked at him with half lidded eyes and licked her lips. “I don’t want to either.”

His eyes searched hers as he moved his lips closer to hers. She closed her eyes and angled her head in preparation. She jumped when her phone dinged, letting her know she had a text message. She chuckled lightly and looked down. “I guess they’re getting impatient.”

Jason changed his path and kissed her forehead, letting his lips linger. Marinette closed her eyes and leaned into the kiss. “We better get moving then,” he agreed just as quietly. “Wouldn’t want the model to have bags under his eyes in his pictures.”

She giggled at the comment and rested her head on his shoulder, making no move to get up. “So very thoughtful of you.”

“Yep, always thinking of others. That’s what everyone always says about me,” he joked, hugging her closer again.

She pushed away to look him in the eyes and cup his face. “I don’t doubt it.” She rubbed his cheeks with her thumb for a moment before standing up to leave.

Jason shook his head and sighed. “You really should,” he muttered too quietly for her to hear.

“Now we really better get going before Chloe skins me alive. And if we don’t leave now we’re going to be late. It takes a while to get there.”

“Ready to go,” he confirmed, following her out the door.

“Sure you got everything, General Sherman?” she teased him.

“General Sherman?” He looked at her questioningly, pulling the door closed behind him. He could not for the life of him figure out what the American Civil War had to do with him.

She nodded with a grin. “It’s like the biggest tree in the world or something?”

He shook his head. “What is it with you and all the tree nicknames?”

“They’re big and annoying, like you.” She booped him on the nose and laughed continuing to walk down the hallway.

He stared after her for a moment before something clicked in his mind. He walked up next to her and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “I think it’s because you want to climb me like one.” Marinette squeaked and stopped walking. Her cheeks immediately turned deep red that spread to her ears and neck. He gave her a devilish smirk and kept walking to the elevator. “You coming?”

Marinette cocked her hip to the side with a smirk that said she knew something he didn’t and knocked on that door she had stopped in front of.

Jason looked at the door and back to her and shook his head. “And here I was hoping I'd be able to make some more and better moves on you on our trip.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “You have stronger moves than coming out in just skintight pants?”

“I do and I'm very excited to show them to you,” he confirmed with a cheeky grin, moving until he was only a hair’s breadth away from her.

She looked up at him and swallowed heavily. “I’m not sure I’d survive them.”

“Fucking finally! It’s only like ten feet what the fuck took so long. Some of us have better things than to do than lay the groundwork for getting fucked by our boyfriends.” Chloe exclaimed with an amount of exasperation that only she could achieve.

Marinette squeaked again and turned to Jason. “I swear I didn’t tell them that.”

“I will,” he smirked at her moving past her into the room.

She gave him a halfhearted glare and followed him in. “Go ahead, but at some point someone should wait for me to agree to be their girlfriend before they start telling people I am.” She gave Adrien a pointed look.

Adrien jumped up with a scowl, “Hey, no. It doesn’t count as ‘before’ if we never dated.”

“Take a look at the Ladyblog. We’ve been dating for five years,” Marinette pointed out with a smirk.

“I meant actual dating,” Adrien pouted, “not fanfiction dating.”

“Luka didn’t tell anyone before… or after,” Alya offered. “He really didn’t talk about it at all.”

“Bri didn’t tell… oh, no, yeah she did,” Nino added with a grimace. “Everyone.”

“Looks like Jason is your only hope,” Alya gave smirked.

“Too late for that,” Marinette gave him a pointed look. Jason shrugged not looking at all repentant and even had the audacity to put his arm around her waist and pull her closer, which Marinette subconsciously leaned in to. “Henry was the only one that asked me _and then_ told people.”

“Yeah, but he didn’t last long, so clearly not a good approach for you.” Alya pointed out.

“Lasted longer than Bri though, so your theory might need some work,” Nino corrected her.

“The problem isn’t the approach,” Chloe chimed in annoyed with the conversation already, “the problem is Marinette.” Alya rounded on Chloe, red in the face and ready to start lecturing, but Chloe continued before she could. “Her standards suck. As in she has none.”

“Hey!” Marinette yelped indignantly. 

“She doesn’t date people worthy of Ladybug, let alone Marinette.” Chloe clarified haughtily, pulling out her homework.

Everyone but Jason froze and stared at Chloe. “She’s drunk,” Nino stage whispered to Alya. “That’s the only explanation.”

“Okay, as godawful as this introduction has been so far…” Marinette spoke up ending the conversation. “… and it has been. Let’s do real introductions. Jason, this is the permanent miraculous team.” She motioned her arm to indicate the people in the room. “The drunk one is Chloe.”

“Fuck you, Dupain-Cheng.” Chloe scowled not looking up from her homework.

“I thought that was my job,” Jason commented with a smirk.

“Oh, he’s going to fit in perfectly,” Nino laughed. 

“I’m Alya.” She waved from her spot on the couch. “The one that looks like he just got in a fight is Nino. The dork is Adrien.”

“Did you just get in a fight?” Jason asked observing him. His clothes were rumpled, his hair looked scruffed up, and there looked to be the beginning of a bruise on his arm.

“Kind of. I said…” Nino started with a wicked smirk.

“Nino, you finish that sentence and I will give you a black eye to complete your look,” Marinette growled at him.

Jason looked down at Marinette in surprise before leaning over to whisper quietly enough that only she could hear, “Did I mention how fucking hot you are?” Marinette squeaked and turned bright red again.

Adrien crossed the room to shake Jason’s hand with a friendly grin. “Okay, introductions are done, now let’s focus on the important business before I have to leave. First, what did you just say? I haven’t seen her turn that color in years. Also, a correlated question, he’s already telling people you’re dating?” He waggled his eyebrows at Marinette. She took a deep breath and let it out loudly in a resigned huff. They were going to ridicule her for the rest of her life over Jason. Adrien laughed at her and moved his focus over to Jason. “Good to see you, man. I’m impressed you were able to find Marinette.” He eyed Jason’s hand around Marinette’s waist and Marinette’s body language. He looked up to Jason. “I ship it.” 

Jason grinned smugly at Marinette. “He ships it,” he pointed out in an innocent voice.

Marinette rolled her eyes. “He would ship me with Loki. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Adrien grinned at her and shot her finger guns. “Whatever makes you happy, baby. And Loki is hot. I ship everyone I like with him.”

Alya pushed him out of the way and stepped in front of Jason. “Ignore him. He trusts everyone. You don’t need to worry about him unless you screw up… and then he’ll kill you.” She stuck her hand out to shake Jason’s. He looked down at Marinette questioningly. She shrugged in response. This wasn’t the worst shovel talk they’d doled out and he was Red Hood, he could handle it. “We, on the other hand,” she motioned to Chloe and herself, “don’t trust anyone. We’ll kill you when we think you even might be about to screw up.”

Jason nodded at them. This was a form of interaction he understood; threats. “And him?” He motioned to Nino.

“Me? I provide the alibis.” He answered with a grin.

“One of the most important pieces in the game.” He nodded looking around. “Another important piece is believability. People have to believe you would do what you threaten. That’s where a reputation can help you. No offense but you guys don’t seem the type.”

“But I am.” Plagg appeared in Jason’s face out of nowhere with a maniacal grin on his face. 

Jason flinched back almost falling on his ass, pulling Marinette behind him as he moved. “What the ever living FUCK is that?” He yelled out.

The room erupted in laughter except for Plagg who continued staring him down. Marinette stood between the two with an apologetic smile and helped him straighten up. “Sorry about him. I’d say he doesn’t mean it but… the dinosaurs would say otherwise… if they were still alive… and could talk.”

“Jesus Christ, Marinette. You were over there forever. Did you explain _anything_ to him?” Chloe groaned.

“I was trying to explain things to but then someone,” she looked pointedly at all of them, “kept interrupting.”

“And just exactly what were we interrupting?” Adrien asked waggling his eyebrows.

Marinette gave him a deadpan look for a few seconds waiting for him to figure it out. “Explaining things. I just fucking said that, dumbass.”

“Excuse me, but would we discuss the fucking floating demon cat, please?” Jason interrupted keeping his eyes glued to the floating creature.

“Please don’t call him that. It’ll just go to his head. We won’t hear the end of it for _centuries_.” Tikki floated up near Jason but at a respectful distance. “I’m Tikki. He’s Plagg. That is Wayzz. That is Trixx. And that is Pollen.” She said, pointing out each of the kwami in turn as they hovered over their wielders. “We’re kwami.”

“Right. That explains exactly nothing.” Jason scowled. “Is there someone who can use real words to explain what is going on?”

Marinette laughed and pulled him over to the sitting area, letting him take the arm chair while she perched on its arm. “Kwami are what give us our powers. Each one represents a concept. Each concept comes with powers related to that concept. Pollen is the kwami of subjection. She can knock people out. Wayzz is the kwami of protection. He creates an impenetrable force field. Trixx is the kwami of Illusion. He can cast… illusions. That one’s rather self-explanatory really. Plagg, the demon cat, is the kwami of destruction. He can be asshole, like his owner.” Twin heys rang out from Adrien and Plagg, which were completely ignored. “But his power is he can cast bad luck and he destroys things. Tikki is the kwami of creation. She has the power of luck and can create things. There are more, but those are the five main kwami used currently.”

“Okay…” he drew out the last sound of the word, not sure how to process all that.

Marinette grimaced at him. “It gets worse so I just… want you to be prepared.” He scowled at her. Worse than their last conversation didn’t sound good. “The kwami are tied to pieces of jewelry called a miraculous. If you possess the miraculous, you can control them. That’s why the villain is trying to get our miraculous. If he gets them, he controls them. Tikki’s and Plagg’s miraculous can be used together to grant a wish, a physics defying, reality destroying wish. It can reset time. It can destroy worlds. A couple hundred years ago, someone got them. He wished for immortality.”

Jason watched her apprehensively. “He created the Pits.”

“No, we created the Pits. He _wished_ for them.” Plagg hissed. “But he wasn’t too specific with his wish,” he cackled as he said it.

“Making a wish is like making a deal with a leprechaun. There’s always a catch.” Marinette clarified. “He got immortality, but at a price.”

“That’s why we’re letting you stay lover boy,” Alya added.

“I already used lover boy,” Marinette interrupted.

“Fuck, yeah that was too easy anyway. Don Juan?”

“Not yet.”

“Not ever.” She said pointedly and turned to Jason. “That’s why we’re letting you stay Don Juan,” she continued. “Because the Pit restores your health, but weakens your ability to link to a miraculous or its powers.”

“It means Hawkmoth shouldn’t have as powerful of a pull on you, should an akuma ever land on you,” Nino added.

“It also means you can’t ever wield a miraculous,” Marinette said apologetically.

“Was that a consideration?” Jason exclaimed.

“No!” “Maybe.” “Duh!” Alya, Adrien, and Chloe answered at the same time. Alya and Adrien looked at each other in surprise while Chloe rolled her eyes.

“We never discussed that!” Alya raised her voice in annoyance.

“It wouldn’t have been the worst idea,” Adrien offered weakly.

“It would have been the obvious next step. If he’s here to help us and he has training _and_ Marinette trusts him, which of fucking course she does, _of course_ we would have given him one.” Chloe explained.

Jason leaned over to Marinette so the others wouldn’t hear him. “I see what you mean about Manon and Chloe.” 

Marinette giggled and nodded. “It’s only a matter of time before she adds the cursing in too. She probably does just not in front of me or her mom.”

“And what are you two kids giggling about over there?” Adrien asked with a knowing smirk.

“Fuck you. I don’t giggle.” Jason grunted.

“Too manly for that. I only laugh in a manly way,” Nino’s voice lowered to imitate Jason.

The rest of the room started chortling in terribly concealed laughter. Jason narrowed his eyes and pointed at him, “Yes I am.” Causing the rest of the room to give up on their attempts to hide their laughter. “Okay, so what I’m hearing is I don’t get one of those magical girl sequences.”

Marinette laughed and patted him on the shoulder. “I mean, you could always pretend. Nobody’s stopping you from creating your own amazing sequence when you put on your suit.”

He smirked and pulled her closer to him. “What kind of sequence were you thinking of exactly?” Marinette squeaked and turned red. She buried her head in her hands making him laugh.

“An incredibly fucking boring one considering she mentioned putting your clothes _on_.” Chloe remarked.

“I’m creative. I could make it work.” Jason assured her with a wink. Marinette groaned and bent in half, trying to force her face, still covered by her hands, into her legs while the rest of the room laughed.

Chloe eyed him for a moment before nodding and going back to her homework. “I’m sure that’s true, off brand Robin Hood.”

“Are we letting him suit up though?” Alya asked. “Do we want Hawkmoth knowing one of Gotham’s vigilantes is running around? Not to mention, his identity isn’t protected by magic. If someone knows Jason Todd from Gotham is in Paris and Red Hood from Gotham is in Paris, people will be able to put things together. They aren’t stupid.”

“That’s a good point, babe. I don’t think we can.” Nino agreed.

“We’re not letting him run around at all.” Marinette’s voice was so firm, the note of finality so clear Jason did a double take. “You don’t have magic to protect you and we can’t give you a suit. You can’t be in the fights.”

“I’ve fought worse things than you can imagine,” Jason said slowly.

“I have an incredible imagination, but I don’t have to use it for this. I just need my memory,” she said coldly. The rest of the room watched her with sympathy, knowing where her mind went. “Because I can remember devastation. I can remember people torn to pieces. I can remember people crushed. I can remember people drowning. I can’t remember you like that.”

“I can take care of myself. I’ve fought Supers. I’ve fought assassins. I’ve come back from the god damned dead,” he assured her, starting to understand where her objection was coming from.

“Join the club. You aren’t special.” Chloe snarked.

“But I did it without a magic suit. I’ve probably done almost as much as you all and without a magic power up to do it.” Jason argued.

“Power ups are a different thing.” Nino threw in. Marinette and Jason glared at him. He held his hands up in surrender. “Just saying.”

“I can do more than just hide,” he pointed out, begging her to let him do more.

“And you will, but not in a fight.” Marinette responded, her eyes pleading with him to understand.

“He’s going to need to suit up if he’s going to train us while we’re in suits though. Jason Todd can’t just be hanging around the miraculous team. That would put him squarely on Hawkmoth’s most wanted list. Right next to Marinette.” Adrien pointed out.

Jason’s head whipped over to her and Marinette groaned. “The fuck?”

“It’s nothing,” she tried to assure him, but the look he gave her confirmed he wouldn’t believe it.

She sighed and shot Adrien a glare. “Fine. Hawkmoth likes to target me. Has from the start. We have no idea why. I would say Lila, she’s the only one we know of who actively dislikes the Marinette side of me, but it started before she appeared in Paris and we know Hawkmoth is a man. We checked her National ID and school records. She definitely wasn’t here. We don’t think he knows my identity, otherwise he would have targeted me more. So it’s just one of those fun mysteries that makes life interesting. Because otherwise our lives would be so boring.”

Jason stared at her with an overwhelming need to protect her burning in his gut. It wasn’t just as a hero that she was dealing with this. She had to deal with it as a civilian too. No fucking wonder she was so fucking over this. But since she wouldn’t let him fight with them, the best way to help her right now was to train her and to do that, he would have to come up with a new identity. “Red hood can’t run around with you guys and train you, but maybe another hero can.”

“Hell no. We’re barely letting you stay, and that is still probationary. We sure as hell aren’t letting another hero in.” Alya growled.

“No, I meant I’ll have to be someone else,” Jason explained.

“I still don’t want you in akuma battles,” Marinette said carefully.

“We can discuss that later,” he assured her. He knew why she was objecting, for the same reason he would object to her fighting against the Joker. He didn’t doubt her abilities, but even the idea made his lungs feel like they were slowly disintegrating. And worrying about him would distract her during a fight, which he also couldn’t allow. But he was sure he could convince her to let him help with crowd control, saving innocent bystanders. He just needed a bit of time and the right approach. “But for training and patrol and investigations, another identity would help.” He was specifically thinking about when he was breaking into different places, but she didn’t need to know that. But the way Chloe was eying him, he had a feeling she knew what he meant.

“Like Red Bat?” Nino suggested.

“No, nothing bat related, just to be safe.” Jason shook his head.

“Oooh, Red Cat!” Adrien exclaimed, bouncing in his seat at the idea.

“Hell no. I would never hear the end of it.”

“Red Turtle?” Nino suggested with a smile. “Raphael?”

“Oooh, Red Fox!” Alya offered loudly. She froze almost immediately realizing what that would be. “No wait… forget I said that.”

There was a pause as people thought of a name. “Don’t look at me,” Chloe spoke up without looking up from her homework. “I’m not sharing my name. I’m the only Bee in town.”

“A name can wait. We’ll need a suit before a name. I think I can come up with a few ideas, unless you have one already.” Jason shook his head and Marinette bounced with anticipation. “Yay! I never get to design hero suits.” She pulled him up to standing so she could examine his body with a critical eye, thinking of designs that would work with his body. Jason suddenly felt exposed as he circled him with no hint of a blush as she stared at him and for the first time, he was positive she was not thinking about him in any remotely sexual way. He scrunched up his face. He didn’t like it at all.

“Okay,” Adrien interjected. She’s going to be gone to the world for a while. “So, back to the important business. Second question; is your brother single?”


End file.
